A Quiet Mind
by Lycan.Kallias
Summary: The voices started without warning. Always screaming in Gaara's mind, keeping him from sleep, from pretending to be normal... from everything. No one can explain them and nothing can be done about them... Then the new kid showed up. AU. GaaNaru Yaoi.
1. The Unexplained & The Unexpected

**O.o My first Naruto fanfic. Ha ha ha! I fell in love with series not too long ago, but the Gaara/Naruto thing had me immediately. :p**

**Story inspired by true events. Woooot!**

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**Chapter One  
**_The Unexplained & The Unexpected_

Gaara just laid there as the voices shouted at him. He could only lay there. There was nothing he could do about them. There was nothing anyone could do about them. The angry shouting didn't form anything intelligible, but he could tell they hated him.

The thick curtains on his bedroom window kept out as much light as possible and the lights in his room had long since been shattered when someone forgot and had turned them on, but he knew he would have to go out and face the glaring sunlight eventually. He'd have to willingly walk under the bright florescent lights of the school. He had no other choice.

At least he had done something about the noise problem. Schools had, apparently, always been loud. But ever since the voices came, it had become unbearable. After two days of growling at the kids to shut up, he snapped. He was hauled to the principals office after the teachers had been able to pull him off a particularly loud gum chewer. The principal had said there was nothing anyone could do about the noise of a school. That he should just not come until his head ache went away. Gaara didn't feel the need to tell him this head ache would not 'go away' until he died. The voices were vicious. There was no way they would just go away.

The principal had been wrong off course. As soon as Gaara showed up the next day, an odd silence fell across what seemed to be the entire school building. Hundreds of students moved to classes or watched him go by in silence. It would have be almost enjoyable if someone would have killed the fucking florescent lights.

For five months, five entire months, silence seemed to rein in the school. And in a few short months, Gaara would be graduating. He didn't know where he'd go. He'd just go. Probably crawl into a dark cave somewhere and try to drive the voices out of his head.

To call them voices was incorrect. They were really just sounds. Sounds that no one could explain. Sounds that no amount of pain killers could drive away. Gaara had almost OD'd before they finally decided pills weren't the answer. Neither was therapy. Or meditation. Or any other obscure thing they tried. Gaara had long ago accepted his head would forever be shared with the foreign screeching. Accepted he'd never sleep more than an hour a night for the rest of his life. Accepted the voices would be a part of him until he finally died. Or killed himself.

The last option was looking the most appealing this morning.

A knock so light anyone other than him would have missed it, making him sit up. He gathered his book bag quietly and opened the door, eyes narrowing slightly as the bright light of the hall flooded his dark room. Temari gave him a half smile. She was hoping one day, any day, the voices in her friends head would just go away. Gaara knew she was hoping they would. He also knew they wouldn't.

They walked silently down the hall of the orphanage that was their home. Due to Gaara's obvious pain at any sound, only older children who preferred silence themselves were housed around him and he and Temari left for school before the others woke up. Gaara didn't mind leaving early. It was less time he had to pretend to be asleep. He had managed to keep that part of his 'condition' a secret. With the help of the blond girl's eyeliner of course. He wore it so thickly around his pale eyes that it covered any sign of the bags only a few knew were there.

He hadn't cared that people stared the first time he did it. They had always been staring, but back then they had been staring at the brand on his forehead. A brand his own sadistic father had put there. He had been glad they had started staring at his horrible make-up skills than at the mark he wanted no one to ever look at. Luckily his hair had grown enough that it covered it up somewhat and the looks were few and far between.

Gaara barely winced as the early morning light hit his eyes suddenly and Temari gave him a look that said 'Told you so.' Gaara felt his eyes narrow and he stomped out into the early morning air and slipped inside the car of the lucky social worker selected to take them to school that day. Temari had been on him for months to wear the glasses of black plastic the doctors had given him to help with the light. They were like sunglasses, except **no **light could get through and Gaara would have to walk around like a blind man. It was bad enough they had given him ear plugs. Now they wanted him to be blind as well.

The red head felt more stubborn than practical at that moment and refused. Now both items lay on the table beside his bed with a bottle of Advil, all forgotten. Gaara was not weak. And he refused to show any weakness to anyone... unless he had to beat the fuck out of some kid to get them to shut up because they were giving him a head ache.

He sighed soundlessly and closed his eyes. The voices quieted slightly at the loss of the intensity of the light. He tried to pull at the sleep he felt at the egdes of his mind. It was like fighting sleep all the time, except it was backwards. He was fighting to get the sleep to come but the sleep didn't want to. It made him tired. And even that was stupid. No matter how tired he got, he couldn't sleep. Not unless there was absolute silence and complete darkness. And then before every ounce of tired left him, his eyes refused to stay shut after an hour.

"Good morning." Relief washed over Gaara at the sound of Neji's whisper.

Yesterday the bastard known as Kakashi had **volunteered **to drive them. That should have been the red flag. The guy shouted, slammed the door, used the horn excessively, somehow managed to dodge Gaara's fist and drive away. Gaara had decide he hated the man. The voices squirmed and raised their shouting just remembering it.

He must have winced because Neji apologised in a softer voice and started the almost silent car.

The trip to school was short. Nice and almost quiet. There was nothing anyone could do about the other drivers and this was a city. No one could silence a city. Not even the stubborn red head.

"Gaara?" Temari whispered.

His fingers went to work massaging his temples before he answered with a simple. "Hn."

"I heard yesterday... Some new kids registered. They're going to be there today." He heard the hesitation in her voice. He wasn't going to promise not to beat the kids up. As long as they stayed the hell away from him or kept their mouths shut, he would have no problem with them. Hopefully they were shy and quiet.

Hopefully.

"It's stupid to have a first day on friday. Especially in March." The boy muttered softly wondering if either of his companions heard his quiet response.

"We're here." Neji whispered from the front. Gaara opened his eyes slowly, fighting the wince he felt rolling through him. He nodded at the man and got out. Temari waved at him and mouthed a 'bye' before rushing off to her friends. He stood there for a minute, trying to calm the voices snarling in his head, before he gave up and walked into the tall brick building.

The hallways still echoed softly as the conversations dropped to whispers as he passed teachers and a few early kids. And as what they said found it's way to his ears, he refused to be grateful. He had heard so many rumors about himself it was crazy. Apparently he was in a gang, an assassin, a demon, possessed, the Anti-Christ, going through a nervous breakdown, psychotic, and, while being all of this, dating some actress he had never heard of. Gaara had almost snorted. The saddest part was, it seemed a lot of people seemed to believe them. A lot. And with all those rumors, no one had guessed the truth. He hoped they never would. The rumors are far more interesting. Although the dating some actress thing was just stupid.

Gaara entered his first class, which was thankfully empty, and laid down at his table in the back. He closed his eyes and tried a breathing exercise his therapist had taught him. The voices just seemed to laugh. Why wouldn't they just go away. The soft clanking of glass and the squeak of a bad wheel made Gaara look up. "Ah, Gaara. Of course. Do you feel like joining the lab today? Or would you rather watch?" His chemistry teacher, Orochimaru kept his voice soft, not a whisper, but nothing that sent fury thrashing through his brain.

Before the voices began, Gaara had excelled at the chemistry labs. But a nice sudden screeching erupting in his skull at the wrong moment had ended that. He dropped a beaker of sodium hypochlorite onto his lap and still had the burn marks on his legs and stomach as testimony to the dangerous powers of the raw chemical. He stared at the chemistry teacher and the teacher smiled. For some reason, the teachers smile had always sent an urge to shiver rolling down his back. "We're doing some simple work with hydrogen peroxide and potassium iodide. Nothing too serious." Gaara thought about it for a minute. Neither of the chemicals could create the same pain as the sodium hypochlorite. Should be okay.

He nodded and put his head back down into his arms. He stayed that way for what felt like hours. The voices howling, screeching, and stabbing his head all in turn. He tried for numbness, but it was out of reach. After going through pain for a while one was supposed to go numb to it. No matter what, the pain should become a normal part of life and fade into the background. This pain wasn't. And that only led to one conclusion. The voices just became steadily louder, the pain just increasing.

Maybe his head was just preparing to explode.

When Gaara finally looked up again, the room was almost full and the clock above the door told him only twenty-five minutes had past. Fuck. Today was going to be a long day. He almost sighed out loud and a girl he remembered as Tenten smiled at him from across the room. He pretended not to notice and braced himself for the bell that would be ringing at any second. 'Breathe.' He told himself calmly. 'Just breathe...' The pep-talk did nothing as the bell rocked his entire body and the voices howled. No one seemed to notice. The only sign something was wrong was his sudden sharp intake of breathe, and even that had remained silent.

"Okay class. Today we'll be conducting a nice entry level lab. Easy stuff here kids. If you'd been listening to me at all these past three quarters, this should be cake." The class burst into excited chatter, but the volume lowered greatly as Gaara's shoulders went rigid. Where ever he went the volume was always set according to his body language. Relaxed meant you could get louder. Tense was the sign to drop the volume. Stiff but still moving seemed to be read as fine. And people said high schoolers were stupid.

The teacher went around slowly placing instructions, beakers, bottles, tea bags, and chemicals in front on each group of the black lab tables. "You'll be working with the lab partner at your table. No switching. No growling. No screaming... No fighting." He droned on, adding the 'No fighting' rule as he set Gaara's equipment out in front of him. The silent red head looked at the empty seat next to him. The seat had always been empty. Even before his 'episodes' and sudden obsession with the quiet, no one had ever sat next to him willingly. A part of Gaara felt a tiny bit of sadness. Another, louder part snorted at his disappointment and told him that was the way it would always be. He had been born to be alone.

The voices gave a sudden vicious wail and clawed at Gaara's brain with no obvious trigger. He was barely conscious his fingers twitched in pain and one of his eyes narrowed against the agony in his head. Seconds after the attack began, a blur of bright colors slammed the classroom door open and a voice shouted loudly. "Sorry I'm late! This stupid building's huge!" The blond grinned and immediately walked up to Orochimaru. The teacher seemed amused and pointed to the only open seat.

The seat next to Gaara.

Of course. Why not? The loud mouth got placed next to him. Gaara threw a glare at the teachers back. The blond smiled widely at him as his chair scraped loudly against the floor and threw his bag on the table with a slight 'bang'.

"Poor kid's gonna die." Someone whispered from in front of them. Gaara continued to glare at the insanely noisy kid and the blond continued to grin, though it began to falter and fall. The kid was the embodiment of everything Gaara avoided. Bright orange pants with neon orange converses. Blue shirt that somehow seemed to match the insane orange. A perfectly-matched-to-the-pants orange hoody. Blond hair that was almost gold. Deeply tanned skin with three slightly pale scars on each cheek that would have looked like some idiotic 'kawaii neko' shit if they hadn't obviously been scars. And blue eyes... bright blue eyes that took Gaara's breath away. Blue eyes that matched a cloudless sunny afternoon sky. The kind of sky Gaara could no longer look at without regretting it for days. This kid was the human form of everything that caused the red head unbearable pain. Gaara felt his glare slip.

"Name's Naruto!" The blond practically shouted, getting his smile back, and put his hand out. Gaara ignored it and looked away from the annoying blond. "So, uh, what's yours?" Naruto asked letting his hand fall.

"Open the tea bag." Gaara muttered quietly already pouring the hydrogen peroxide into the intended beaker. The blond just sat there as if he hadn't spoken. "Open the tea bag." Gaara tried a little louder. The kid still just sat there. 'What the fuck? Another moron. Of course. The world just hates me.' Gaara's thoughts snarled and he shoved the tea bag across the table towards the blond. "Open it." There was no way he couldn't have heard him that time. But the kid wasn't looking at him. His eyes were locked on something past Gaara's shoulder.

Paranoid, the red head stole a glance. Every set of eyes in the room were trained on him and whisker kid in an almost horrified manner. There was nothing wierd about the pair. Nothing was off. Gaara was actually fighting the ugre to beat the kid to a bloody pulp at the moment. Sure the kid was a spectical, a walking Vegas sign practically, but still nothing that deserved the amount of stares he was getting.

Unless they weren't staring at Naruto.

Everyone was staring at him. But why...?

Abruptly the red head turned back the his lab partner, pulled the kid towards him by the collar of his shirt and held him there letting the silence seep into his head.

Letting the complete silence wash through him.

His eyes didn't automatically narrow in the harsh glare of the schools lighting system. The bright kid didn't make his brain scream anything but the usual 'beat the idiot up'. And the overly loud movements the kid made hadn't sent him to the ground twitching. The voices were gone. There was actual silence.

And as thought sank in Gaara fell to the floor in sweet unconsciousness.

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**Eh. Could have been worse.... Right? :l **

**This chapter is brought to you by the song **_You're Cute When You Scream _by Senses Fail.

I think I'll try to keep updates coming every week... what day is this? Oh god. This is doomed. Ha ha ha. Joking... i think.

**Reviews are awesome. Ha ha ha! **


	2. Anthem Of A Seventeen YearOld

**XD I'm so glad ya'll seemed to like it! Thanks to all of those who reviewed. It made me happy. One particular review made by **_YamiTenshi_** seriously had me laughing so hard I ran to the bathroom... So thank you!**

**I had a "free day" so I was able to write this! O.O Awesomes.**

**If you couldn't tell by the last chapter... I'm a total chemistry lover. And I think I must have been on crack to think loud Naruto would be the solution to Gaara's fierce headaches... Not that I do crack or anything!**** I've been thinking updates might become twice a week. This story just kind of rolls out. I'm already working on chapter three. O.o Fer reals. **

**Oh yeah NOTE: I don't own these characters. :P This is an AU fic with BL **

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**Chapter Two  
**_Anthem Of A Seventeen Year-Old_

Naruto still didn't want to leave. They had already arrived, sort of settled, paid rent and Naruto still didn't want to leave the little town he had grown up in. And he definitely didn't want to move to the city. The air smelt different here. It tasted different too. But Naruto didn't say much about that. Sulking was his cousin Sasuke's job, not his. So when Itachi pulled the moving van into the drive way, the blond had put on his best smile and tried to think of all the positive things this move must have.

Thankfully, when he couldn't think of any, his smile was already stuck and he didn't give his disappointment away. The ray of light was always so easy for him to find usually. This time, all he could think about was the thinks he had to leave behind. His friends Sakura and Shikamaru, his old hangouts and... his Dad. Itachi had said they could always come back on the anniversary and visit. Itachi would even let them stay the night. But somehow, it wasn't the same.

The drive to the loud, stinky and crowded city took entirely too long. They had left at ten that morning and hadn't arrived until seven that evening. And that was way too long for anyone to stay cooped up in a car. Especially Naruto.

At all of Naruto's urging, Sasuke had been forced to pull over for several restroom and snack breaks, losing sight of Itachi more than once, loud singing that resulted in the car swerving and the blonds head thumping against the window several times, and after a fist fight finally broke out between the two, Naruto had been forced to ride in the stuffy moving van with his oldest cousin for an hour. Needless to say, this whole 'moving-to-the-city-and-starting-over' thing wasn't starting out too well.

The apartment was nice. Slightly smaller than the house they lived in back home, but that house had been too big. It had been made for a family... not two teenagers and their legal guardian. The apartment was just right. Too bad Naruto had already decided to hate it. Because as much as he tried to deny it, the place was pretty cool. Itachi smiled and directed them toward the side of the apartment their rooms were on. "Don't even try fighting over them. The rooms are exactly alike. The paint, the details, the size. Even the view is the same. If it breaks into a fight I'm making you both go to school tomorrow."

Sasuke scowled as Naruto finally cracked a genuine smile and headed down the hall Itachi pointed down. Carrying a box under his arm, walked through the last door in the hall and almost dropped it.

It was beautiful. The lights shining through the window seemed a lot like the stars he thought would disappear from view in the city. True they weren't the stars really, but it was pretty enough to make him tear up slightly. He sniffed loudly and put the box down gently. Okay. So maybe this was a sign things here wouldn't be so bad. A sudden crash from the living room made his head drop instantly.

"NARUTO!"

Strike that. Things were gonna be worse.

After being scolded about the stow-away toad (Seriously it was one toad! Just ONE!) the three men worked almost through the entire night pulling furniture into the elevator, out again, and pulling it through the hallways. Not to mention one of them had to stay by the truck to make sure nothing got stolen. The night was officially becoming the worst night in Naruto's whole seventeenth year and when the entire truck _finally_ emptied the doorman decided that was the _perfect _time to tell them the building actually had movers. Naruto had to smirk at his cousins. That poor jerk would probably be unable to go anywhere alone in the dark for the next year.

The blond could hear his raven hair cousin rummaging around in his room next door, but found the only thing he had energy for was flopping onto his bed face first. And when the frame, which he had forgotten he hadn't screwed together, collapsed, he didn't even have the energy to scream or snap at Sasuke's loud snort from his doorway. "Night dobe."

"Fuck you teme." And that was Naruto's last thought the first night in his new room.

-

"Ah, Prince Charming awakens." Itachi smiled. "And he comes halfway unclothed already. A man after my own heart." Naruto scratched his head not even trying to figure out what the man was getting at. He yawned and shuffled forward towards the wonderful smell of coffee. His search took him a good five minutes before Sasuke held out the shiny ceramic mug. Naruto grinned and reached for his cup, but the dark haired boy pulled it away last moment making his blond cousin fall flat on his face.

"What was that for you bastard!?" Naruto screamed as he jumped back to his feet, all the clinging sleep finally knocked away.

"First: Button up your pants. Second: pull your arm _through _the arm hole in your shirt. Third: Go brush your teeth." Itachi laughed lightly as his younger brother counted off all the things wrong with the blonds appearance this morning. Naruto looked down. Indeed somehow during the night his pants had become undone and were now hanging dangerously on his hips. His arm did have issues with the hole it was supposed to be in and had slithered it's way out, pushing the white fabric up onto his shoulder and exposing his tanned stomach. And he had forgotten to brush his teeth before he passed out. He pouted and turned to walk to the bathroom but paused and turned to the arrogant youth with a sly grin that made his entire face seem to glow.

"Whats the matter? All my piping hot sexiness too much for your virgin eyes Princess?" Naruto heard _and_ felt Itachi spit hot coffee everywhere in a fine mist before the blond took off at high speed for the bathroom, eager to escape the murderous look the raven haired boy directed at him in that moment. Naruto had to hold his jeans up with one hand as he ran and barely slammed the door shut before something shattered against it seconds later, seeming to hit exactly where his head leaned against the door.

Naruto smirked and turned to the mirror. Today just might be an awesome day.

-

"Do you always have to look like a glowing carrot?" Sasuke growled then next day as they walked up the steps of the grey brick building that would be there holding cell for the next few months. They had already registered yesterday and spent the rest of the day unpacking things Naruto would have preferred stay in boxes until Itachi realized this was a mistake and they should go back. Unfortunately that seemed highly unlikely and, as the final boxes were crushed and sent down the garbage shoot, the blond seemed to accept his fate.

Naruto flashed him a giant smile. "As long as you have to look like someone who crawled out of a nightmare." He laughed and did his best impression of what was supposed to be the chick from The Ring. It wasn't very impressive. It was at the moment Naruto's tongue tried to wiggle up to his nose and his chin set itself in a weird angle, that a tall blond girl decided to walk up.

"Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki right?" She asked eyeing Naruto like he had the plague. She didn't know if his tongue and face where naturally that way or if the kid was just a loser. Sasuke elbowed his cousin hard in the stomach and the blond snapped out of whatever wierd daydream he had fallen into. "I'm Ino." Her eyes lingered longer than necessary on the pale boy while barely sparing Naruto a second. "Your schedules." She smiled brilliantly handing over two pale cards. "I'll show you around the campus then take you to your classes." Naruto grinned at the two and Sasuke threw him a look that screamed 'Don't you even dare!'

"I think I shouldn't be late to..." He stole a glance down at the manilla card and groaned internally. "chemistry. Love them chemicals and all!" He smiled. "You two have fun!" He called trying to fight the urge to laugh at the other boys obvious discomfort. Serves the jerk right for being so damn pretty and shit. He dashed up the stairs quickly and down the hall, his cream color messenger bag didn't even have time to slap against his leg. '425. This is it.' Naruto's eyes caught the number quickly and he dove for it without even thinking of slowing down.

The heavy metal door slammed against the wall with a monstrous bang. 'Oh yeah. On a roll.' He thought sarcastically and ended up shouting his next line without meaning too. "Sorry I'm late. This stupid building is huge!" And his grin couldn't help but follow. It even grew as he realized all eyes were on him. He walked immediately up to the tall man that put Sasuke's pasty skin color to shame. The man gave him a smile that made a shiver run down his spine and only pointed to the back.

Naruto wasted no time walking back to the only open seat, taking in the young man he'd be seated next to for the next few weeks. He stunning. His hair was a violent shade of red that contrasted nicely with the boys peculiar green-blue eyes, which were currently glaring at the teacher and framed heavily in black make-up. Naruto smiled at the beautiful boy and pulled his chair out loudly and threw his bag on the table.

Like his dad had once said 'When you want to make a memorable impression, be as loud as you can.'

Or something like that.

Maybe it wasn't even his dad who said it. Naruto couldn't be sure.

"Poor kid's gonna die." A brunette whispered from the front of the room glancing back at Naruto with a grin. Naruto smiled back and turned to his apparent lab partner, about to ask him what they were doing when his voice died in his throat. The green-blue eyes were locked on his, making it hard for him to breathe. 'Whoa.' was Naruto's only thought as he looked at the red head. The boy was thin, possibly thinner than Sasuke who was the skinniest boy Naruto had ever met. His body seemed dominated by the color black. Black and red vans almost covered by the jeans that clung to the boys legs like a second skin before flaring out slightly at the calf. He wore a black fishnet undershirt topped by a deep red, almost black, long sleeve tee shirt pushed up to the elbows. Pale skin that was almost perfect. Almost because it looked like the stunning red hair seemed to be covering some kind of scar.

"Name's Naruto!" He shouted, unable to help his volume at this point, and thrust his hand out towards the boy. The red head looked away and grabbed a glass beaker and a bottle from the supplies in front of him. "So, uh, what's yours?" He tried again, letting his hand fall. 'Please tell me your name at least!' He found himself begging mentally and green-blue eyes flashed to him.

Naruto looked away quickly before his eyes could look into the others again. The eyes were unnerving. They felt like they looked through you, to your soul. Naruto shivered and caught the entire class staring at the two of them. The red head mumbled something, but Naruto was busy staring at the faces that seemed afraid over the kids shoulder. The dark kid got agitated, said "Open it" and Naruto felt something brush against his hand.

Naruto sensed the red heads eyes on him, but couldn't look away from the teachers suddenly sadistic grin until the kids head got in the way as he looked over his shoulder to see what was so damn interesting. Naruto watched the red head observe the class for a moment before his body went rigid and the whipped around to face the blond, pulling him up to him by his shirt, inches from his face. Naruto felt his heart speed up as the green-blue eyes locked onto him, searching him for minutes before an emotion that seemed like relief swept through his eyes, making them more green than blue for a moment, and the red head went limp without warning.

Naruto's arms caught the boy easily and held him there for a minute. What the hell just happened?

"You overloaded his brain!!" The brunette from earlier shouted as he jumped from his table in the front. The class suddenly burst into murmurs.

Naruto felt his heart speed up. "What?!"

"Get him to the nurse." The teacher said calmly, looking more annoyed than concerned. "Kiba. Help him." The brunette walked over to them and went to grab one of the unconscious boys arms but Naruto swung the red head onto his back easily. Kiba shrugged and motioned for Naruto to follow him. As they came to the first set of stairs the brunette started laughing uncontrollably. Naruto felt bad as he began to shake with silent laughter as well. He had no idea what was so funny, but the kids laughter was infectious.

"I seriously thought **you **would be the one we'd be taking down to the nurses office, if not calling an ambulance for your body." Kiba said as his laughter moved to a chuckle. Naruto felt one eyebrow go up and before he could ask the boy started talking again. "Gaara doesn't like noises. He's beat up several 'loud' kids. And you are, by far, the loudest kid I'm sure Gaara has ever met. He wasn't like that before but his friend Temari says he's been having real bad headaches lately and noises and lights make it worse. After you slammed that door earlier I thought you were toast." The kid laughed again. "I'm Kiba by the way."

"Naruto." The blond answered, taking the hand Kiba offered. "So... his name is Gaara?" He asked pointing to the completely limp boy on his back.

"Yeah. Do ya think you killed him?" The boy asked poking the red heads cheek, Gaara growled at that exact moment and both the boys jumped, but the unconscious boy nuzzled his face further into Naruto's neck and the blond felt himself blush as Gaara's lips brushed against his skin. Quiet filled the hallways as they made their way to the nurses office which, of course, had to be on the first floor. Naruto's cheeks flamed every time someone came across them, eyes widening in fear or narrowing in amusement.

"Here we are." Kiba whispered holding the glass door open for him. Naruto smiled and made his way over to the bed to lay Gaara down quickly before his legs gave out. "Tsunade!" The brunette called out quietly and went through another glass door. Naruto heard someone answer before they were cut off by a loud "I think the new kid killed Gaara."

Naruto sweat dropped. "I didn't kill 'em!" He shouted loudly. At least Kiba hadn't wasted time.

A tall blond woman with an impressive chest came out immediately and Naruto took that as his cue to get away, but as he went to step away from the red heads body, a pale hand shot out and grabbed his wrist. Naruto yelped and tried to remove the hand before the red head could sit up and beat the hell out of him. But no matter how hard he tried, the hand wasn't letting him go. Even as the nurse began checking him over and started asking Naruto questions the hand didn't let go and the boy did not get up. "What happened?"

"I donno. He looked at me, then passed out." Naruto's mouth fumbled the words out as he began to wonder if the kid had had superglue on his hands.

"Just passed out?" The woman asked watching Naruto struggle with the hand, an amused expression taking over her face.

"Uh, damn, yeah." Naruto swore under his breath. "He was looking at me one minute, the next his eyes got happy and rolled back into his head. CAN SOMEONE HELP ME HERE?!"

The three of them worked for a minute trying to separate the boys but ended up making the dead-to-the-world kids hand tighten uncomfortably. Naruto yelped again, made them back off and the hand relaxed slightly, but still refused to let him go. "Kiba get..."

"Naruto." The blond smiled.

"Naruto a chair. You're just going to have to wait until he wakes up." The blond sighed and threw himself into the chair as soon as Kiba brought one close enough. "Sorry. Looks like your stuck here. Shouldn't be long though. Gaara isn't known for his sleeping skills." Naruto's eyes opened slightly as the woman said that. "I'll have some one bring down your things. If you'll excuse me, I have to call Gaara's guardian." And with that the nurse returned to her office. Kiba smirked and threw an arm over Naruto's shoulder.

"Ah. Just when I thought school was gonna die down, you show up and throw every thing off." Kiba slapped the blond on the back roughly. "I'm gonna head back to class. You just hold his hand and tell him everything's gonna be alright." He laughed at Naruto's bright blush and skipped out of the room, dodging the feet Naruto was throwing at him.

The blond sighed and watched the sleeping red head. "Gaara huh?" His fingers brushed lightly over the hand that had a death grip on his wrist. The pale boy sighed and rolled onto his side throwing Naruto over him without any effort. The blond felt his face heat up and wondered if his head could explode from blushing too much. Hopefully not. He shook off that thought and pulled himself back into the chair, making Gaara roll back onto his back.

Naruto stared at the beautiful boy and wondered what his parents must look like. They must be beautiful. They had too be. Beautiful people usually had parents that were equally beautiful or even more beautiful. Somehow Naruto doubted anyone could be more beautiful than Gaara. Was his hair naturally that red? How did he come across such stunning eyes? And why the hell was he thinking all these wierd things? Another blush stained his face as he looked at the sleeping boy. You could call another guy beautiful without being gay right? Uh, right. The blond mentally cursed at his brains hesitation to answer his own question and closed his eyes.

'Who cares? Gaara is down right gorgeous.'

-

Despite what the nurse had said, Gaara continued to sleep for hours. And as the end of the school day drew closer, Naruto began to worry if he would be stuck there after hours. Cause that would totally suck. He had given some serious thought to sawing off his own hand with a protractor when his thoughts about Gaara had become a little... different, but Tsunade had come in, taken the plastic math tool away before Naruto had even drawn blood and smacked the blond across the head. She didn't have to get so bent outta shape. Naruto had known you couldn't amputate an arm with a plastic protractor... or, at least, he did now.

Naruto sighed. Ten more minutes. Ten more minutes and the final bell would ring. And as he began debating dragging the red head home with him, a soft moan caught his attention. He fought the blush the moan started and turned back to the boy. The blond unconsciously bit the side of his lip as a soft pink tongue slid out from between the two pale lips and ran it painfully slow around them. Naruto shuddered but couldn't bring himself to look away. And as those peculiar green-blue eyes opened, he felt rooted to the spot with a sudden feeling he had no name for.

* * *

**It's true kiddo's. **

**You can not saw off your arm with a plastic protractor. No matter how much you wish you could. **

**This chapter was brought to you by the songs **_Plays Pretty For Baby _by Saosin **&** _Anthems Of A Seventeen Year-Old Girl_ by Broken Social Scene. **Just cause I really love Saosin and Broken Social Scene. The songs that I listen to while I write usually have nothing to do with the mood or content in most of the chapters. But sometimes they do. -that was random stupid facts you don't care to know right?-**

**The chapter title seems... odd... But it really makes sense in my mind. Gah! I mean, life really sucks when you're forced to move, but you come to like where you are usually. And when you're seventeen, most things that are new suck... but you end up liking them...? Have I lost anyone? I lost myself.**

**If you review... It would make my day. Ha ha ha!**


	3. Diving In & Dreaming Out

**Once again, **YamiTenshi**, You're comment was priceless. I could just picture the nosebleed poor Naruto experienced in that moment. I wonder if Gaara was being sexy on purpose or if it was just an accident... ****And DON'T try the plastic protractor theory. You get banned from using them in math class for, practically, ever... But that comment was _awesome_ **AnitaThePapermaster**. You are the shiz.**

**I realize the characters don't actually curse much in the manga, I also realize the characters are a bit OOC. But I curse a lot. And I'm just a fanfic writer. I'm not perfect.**

**Note: I don't own the characters, just fanfiction... blah blah blah. On with the chapter.**

* * *

**Chapter Three  
**_Diving In & Dreaming Out_

Gaara felt like a weight had been lifted from him. He knew the feeling immediately. It was the feeling he had missed the most these past five months. It was the feeling of no longer being tired. His eyes opened slowly and he came face to face with a lovely blue-eyed blond. Gaara sat up and rolled his shoulders before turning to the boy. "Why are you here?" He asked bluntly. The blond blushed and looked him straight in the face, scowling.

"Because you wouldn't let me leave!" He shouted lifting up his arm. To say the red head was shocked would be an understatement but he managed to keep it from showing. His hand hand an iron like grip around the blonds wrist and was surprised by how much force he had to use to release it. Naruto rubbed the slightly pink wrist that suddenly felt naked and stood up. "I'm free!" He laughed, Gaara frowned slightly. "Man. I got so bored I tried to saw my arm off with my protractor! I wonder if the stupid nurse will give it back now." The red head was annoyed by the fact he was actually listening to the blond go on and on.

"Where am I?" He asked, interrupting Naruto's chatter.

"The nurses office. Where else?" He grinned. Gaara fought the urge to punch him.

"How?"

"I carried you down. It's lucky you're so light! Do you know how many stairs are in between here and the classroom? It felt like a million! You should probably eat more though. Do you eat at all? You're thinner than my cousin and he barely eats, so that's gotta mean you eat even less! Unless you work out a lot. Or it's, like, genetic or something." The blond kept on going. The urge was getting harder and harder to ignore.

"Do you ever shut up?" Gaara heard himself ask before he could stop himself. The blond just grinned down at him.

"Nope. And you're welcome." With that he bent down, picked up a cream colored book bag and walked out the door. Gaara was left staring after him. After a few seconds he stood slowly and gathered his things. He heard the blonds loud voice call 'Sasuke!' as Tsunade walked in smiling.

"How are you feeling?" She asked watching Gaara carefully. Gaara shrugged and pulled on his jacket. The woman smiled. "Naruto's an interesting kid. I know if an unconscious boy I barely knew had pulled me into his lap at that age, I'd have hit him." Gaara felt himself pause momentarily before pulling his backpack on.

The bell chose that moment to ring and a sudden tremendous screech erupted through his brain and he clutched his head trying to stay on his feet. His head felt as though it were being ripped apart as the voices shouted and screamed. He felt his lip twitch as he took a step forward. What the hell was going on?

Temari was waiting for him at the doorway, her hopeful smile immediately dropping as she saw the look on her friends face. Her hand raised slightly, as if to place a hand on his shoulder, but let it drop when he glared. His appearance had a ripple effect on the the students around him, their chatter falling to almost silence. He scowled and walked towards the school entrance, Temari following close behind. 'What's going on with me? There was silence in my head before... why are they back?' The thoughts were almost hard for Gaara to think. 'What happened?'

"Oh look! It's Sasuke!" Temari whispered excitedly.

Sasuke. Why did that name sound familiar? Gaara looked up and his eyes became stuck on sapphire blue. He froze. The blond was looking at him, seemingly frozen to his spot as well before a wide grin took over his face and he waved excitedly at the red head. Gaara felt himself blush slightly and he walked away from the scene to Neji's car. There was wonderful silence in the car and Neji pulled away from the curb smoothly. "When?" Gaara asked in a voice louder than usual. The other occupants looked at him with similar faces of shock before the lavender eyed man answered in a voice that followed Gaara's lead, becoming hesitantly louder.

"Now." That was all any of them spoke on the way back to the compound and dropped Temari off. She smiled at Gaara and shut the door quietly. The boy sighed. He knew the routine. Every time something involving the voices changing he had to spend quality time at the hospital. First doing tests for the doctors then sitting in for a long conversation with the therapist. "What's wrong?" Neji asked tentatively as they neared their stark white and dull beige destination.

"Lighter." That was all Gaara felt like saying. No need to go into it further. He couldn't explain it even if the man had felt like asking.

It was true though. After the first screech that almost brought him to his knees in pain the voices had dulled. Not gone. Not even enormously lighter. It was a subtle difference, but Gaara could feel it. The light of the afternoon sun still stung at his eyes terribly, but the boy found he could look at the white cars passing by with only the slightest pain. And that was a very noticeable difference. Maybe the voices were finally leaving. Maybe they were disappearing just a mysteriously as they had arrived.

For some reason Gaara highly doubted it would be that easy.

-

The doctors, of course had nothing to say about the decrease in volume. The CAT scan revealed nothing either. Not that anyone expected it to. It never even shown a problem. Gaara growled as the young nurses hands lingered longer than necessary on his hand when she drew blood and his glare made her leave the room nervously, turning down the lights. He sighed and lay back on his bed as he waited for his escort to the new therapist he was supposed to be seeing. He really didn't care that the old one had left and he didn't care that he got a new one. But he did care about the stern lecture the doctor had tried to give him about acting civil. Gaara was always civil. It wasn't his fault people were scared of him.

As soon as the door opened the red head sat up and followed the blue clad nurse across the building. The office was the same one the old therapist had used, the decor changed only slightly. It was not enough to even notice really. The man behind the desk gestured to the sofa across from him and Gaara sat stiffly. The dark haired man was dress a little too casually to look like he actually work here and his eyes made the red head slightly uncomfortable. He looked down at the open file briefly before looking back the boy. "Gaara is it?"

"Hn."

"My name is Itachi Uchiha. You can just call me Itachi." The man smiled. Gaara frowned. "So, it says here you have trouble sleeping for more than an hour a night but slept for almost eight hours this morning. Did you take any drugs to help you sleep?"

"Nothing." Gaara stated blandly.

"Why do you think you were able to sleep this morning?"

That was the question Gaara had been thinking about for the past several hours. Ever since he had woken up in the presence of that ridiculous blond. He couldn't find any answer. He hadn't taken any pill, used any meditation or anything that had been recommended to help him sleep. There was simply no answer. The man waited for him to answer, but Gaara shrugged and leaned back on the couch. "Did anything happen that doesn't usually happen? Something you ate perhaps?"

Gaara sighed lightly. This guy was determined to get him to talk. "They started screaming, then a new kid slammed the door open and they disappeared."

"They?"

"The voi... the sounds in my head." The therapist raised an eyebrow and made a small note.

"And this new kid?"

"An idiot." Itachi's mouth squeezed into a line, trying to not to burst out laughing and motioned for the red head to continue talking. "Annoying. Loud. He wouldn't shut up. But... I didn't notice. The sounds were gone." Itachi's hand stopped scribbling and he looked up at the red head. "I passed out then. When I woke up the kid was there..."

Itachi heard the quiet voice fade. "What else?"

"I-" Gaara felt hesitant to continue. "I had grabbed him while I was sleeping... and wouldn't let him go."

Itachi watched the confusion on the boy's face before turning the conversation to less interesting things. The session dragged on slowly as Itachi had to do most of the talking and the boy simply gave hn's or one worded answers. And when the clock on the desk buzzed quietly, the man felt curiosity get the better of him. "So what was that new kid's name?" He asked, his voice nonchalant.

Gaara raised a nonexistent eyebrow as he got to his feet. Why would the man care? Did it even matter? Why should he even care if he gave the man the kid's name? Gaara had already opened the door before he turned back to the man behind the desk. "Naruto." Gaara watched the mans face flicker with shock before he stepped through the threshold and let the door close quietly behind him. What a weirdo.

Neji was waiting at the end of the hall. He smiled slightly as the red head just stalked past him and made their way to the car. "Anything interesting?" He asked as they slid into the car and pulled the canvas strap across his chest. Gaara shrugged and they drove away for the hospital the red head had never gotten permission to leave.

Temari was waiting for them as they pulled into the drive. She waved happily and took Gaara's bag from the back seat. The move told him she wanted to talk. The red head groaned internally and the voices laughed and stabbed his brain. He didn't want to talk. He'd done enough talking for the day and really just wanted to lay down and do nothing. She smiled back at him as they walked to the rec room. "I heard you passed out." She said quietly, taking a seat on the sofa. "Wanna tell me what happened?"

"Not really." Garra muttered taking the seat opposite of her. "You'll make me talk anyway."

"Yup!" She smiled. Gaara's mind compared the girls smile to the blond kid he met this morning and shook it off.

He sighed and leaned forward. "The voices... went away this morning... without them there I was so tired I just went to sleep." He shut his mouth and raised his eyebrows as if to say that was all there was. At least that's what he thought had happened. "But then they came back." He whispered as an after thought. The girl frowned. He snapped out of the daze he didn't realize he was in and stood up. "I'm going to lay down." He whispered, gabbed his bag and headed to his room.

The room was exactly as he had left it. Spotlessly clean and almost pitch black. He hung his bag on the chair by his desk and lay down. The voices sighed as the door swung shut and the darkness swallowed the pale boy. They murmured and chewed on his brain numbly, only giving shrieks and sharp stabs every once in a while. But Gaara paid them little attention as his mind was filled with sky blue eyes, bronze skin and sunshine gold hair.

-

The weekend was gone before Gaara knew it. All he had really thought about was that smile, those eyes, and that damn boy. He found he couldn't get that idiot off his mind for long. And he felt sure it was slowly driving him crazy. The only time he left the room was when Temari dragged him out to eat and even then Gaara's mind was filled with the blond boy. Temari smiled but said nothing when her friend didn't fight her advances to eat more than soup. She watched him carefully. He refused to leave his room except meal time, but at least he had stopped trying to tell her he wasn't hungry, as he often did before.

When Monday morning finally came, the red head sighed and gathered his things slowly. He wasn't sure he even wanted to see the bright blond again, though his thoughts were consumed with him. Gaara waited until Temari's soft knock told him they were leaving and walked to the car at a sluggish pace. And when the car neared the school, he felt his heart skip a beat. 'I'm just worried he'll make me pass out... that's it.' He told himself and his voices screeched loudly.

The class was empty again, but when he reached his table, he found himself to nervous to lay his head on the table and try to block out the light that was causing him physical discomfort. Instead he watched the door, foot tapping slightly. He pretended not to notice the other students flinches when they saw him glaring at them. He knew exactly what he was waiting for. Who he was waiting for. Again the voices gave a screech that rivaled anything they'd ever done and seconds later the blond walked calmly through the door, bright face stuck in a scowl.

Gaara noticed it immediately this time. The voices faded softly, leaving nothing but a lovely silence in his head. He almost smiled. Almost.

The blue eyed boy faltered for a second when he noticed Gaara's eye on him and a slight blush crept onto his face. The change in color was subtle. Gaara couldn't even be sure it had happened. Naruto smiled at the slightly scowling boy and pulled his chair out loudly, throwing the book bag onto the table with a little more force than normal. The red head glance at him out of the corner of his eyes. The blond was scowling again, unaware of what his presence, at this point Gaara was almost positive Naruto was the unexplainable source of his comfort, did to ease the pain in his head.

Gaara's head turned completely to the blond as a faded black swirl design on his forehead caught his attention. Naruto noticed immediately and his hand snapped up quickly to cover the swirl mark on his forehead with a slap. "Fucking Uchiha..." He grumbled in a voice Gaara noticed was oddly soothing.

"You know Uchiha?" The words left his lips without him meaning to. What was wrong with his mouth around this kid?

Naruto looked up at him. "Yeah, he's my cousin.... and a stupid bastard."

Gaara felt himself frown slightly. "You're related to that man?"

"He's more like a kid!" Naruto nearly screamed. "I don't care how he looks he's still a dumb ass! Stupid Sasuke." Gaara only felt more confused, but let it drop as the teacher walked in pulling yet another cart. This time it had a projector on it.

"Movie time. Tenten, pass these out." The class groaned, but Gaara's eyes traveled back to the blond.

The thought of the voices coming back when Naruto left, if he did have an effect on them, was almost painful to think about. The chances of them having the next class together was slim to none. There were twenty five senior level classes, twelve senior/junior classes, and seven all age classes. Gaara cursed mentally. There was pretty much no chance they had the next class together. And as the video "Molecular Architecture" droned on with no point, Gaara tried to think of ways to keep the blond close.

Gaara wasn't sure when Naruto fell asleep. One minute the blond was muttering complaints and the next he was drooling on his worksheet. Gaara watched the soft rise and fall of the blonds chest, the boys face slightly glowing in the dark. And he felt a soft laugh tickle the back of his throat as Naruto's nose twitched slightly. Looking at him this way you'd never guess he was a loud mouth who gave his lab partner the urge to kick him in the groin. The boy smiled then, as if he could hear Gaara's thoughts. He could have probably forgot his scheming altogether if the blond hadn't given a low, almost inaudible, moan, forcing the red heads gaze back to the movie.

As the bell rang and the lights came back on Gaara's tense body experianced nothing, except when a certain blond awoke with a start shouting 'OF COURSE I DIDN'T STEAL THE FUCKING JELLYBEANS!!' made him jump slightly. The red head glared as Naruto stuffed the worksheet into his bag and started for the door.

Gaara's hand shot out and grabbed the blonds wrist. He felt everyone left in the room freeze the way the blond had. He sighed. "Walk with me." He growled, dropping the kid's wrist and walked past him.

He heard the blond follow him. "So, uh, what's up? I heard your name was Gaara. That's an interesting name! Kinda weird though. Not that my name is 'oh so normal'. But anyway..." His voice died down as they turned down an almost deserted stairwell. "Uh, if, uh, if you're thinking about beating me up, you should know I'm a ninja!" Blue eyes widened as the red head turned to him. "Okay, not really, but I do watch a lot of Kung Fu movies!" And before Gaara could stop it, a smirk spread across his face.

"I don't want to beat you up. Alright?" Naruto looked at him doubtfully before a wide smile spread across his face and something in Gaara's stomach told him he should probably run away.

Bronze hands grabbed pale ones, forcing the red heads heart to speed up. "Oh I get it!"

"No." Gaara tried half heartedly to back away, heart pounding.

Blue eyes sparkled brightly. "You want to be friends!"

Green-blue eyes blinked and stared at the crazy boy. He felt relieved and at the same time crushed, shaking it off Gaara looked at the blond. "No. I just..." He didn't have any idea how to put it and he was fairly certain 'I want you near me because you make the voices in my head shut up.' was not the way to go. They stood there for a full minute before the red head sighed and pulled his hands away. "Yes. I want to be... _friends_." He practically spat out. The brilliant eyes sparkled again and he followed the escaping red head excitedly. "Next class?" Gaara asked as they walked down the stairs, trying to fight the giddy feeling in his stomach.

"English with Iruka!" Gaara came to a complete stop and the blond smacked into his back. The odds had been stacked against him so high. The chances of this happening were close to impossible. The giddy feeling in his stomach exploded through out his entire body, filling him to the brim with a warm emotion. And when the blond asked him what was wrong, he practically jumped into the crowded hallway, letting himself be lost in the jungle of bodies.

He heard Naruto call his name as he turned into the classroom and quickly took his seat. What the hell was this emotion rolling through him, almost making him breathless, making him want to smirk, grin, or even smile. He didn't want to know. His head fell onto his desk gently and three seconds later the confused blond walked through the door.

The teacher, Iruka, greeted Naruto gently as the rest of the class poured in around him and Gaara could feel the burn of eyes on him. Eyes he was certain belonged to the blond boy. "Class we have a new student. Naruto." The teacher announced after the bell rang. Gaara lifted his head in time to see the boys wide smile before Iruka directed him to a seat. Two seats and across the aisle from Gaara. Naruto smiled back at him before turning to face the front.

Gaara cursed what ever entity in the heavens that was laughing at him at the moment and, as the class got up to get their books, felt he wanted to kill that entity.

Cause, you know, that was only fair.

Naruto smiled at him and handed him a book. "It must be fate!" He almost shouted before returning to his seat. Gaara looked away from the stares he was getting and slammed open his book, making the people around him jump. The teacher droned on and on, but Gaara found it hard to pay attention. His eyes roamed over the body of the blond in front of him. His back curving forward softly as the boy crouched over the desk, the soft bronzed skin at his neck, the way his muscles flexed and moved every time the blond reached back every five minutes or so to mess with the hair at the nape of his neck.

Gaara was unfamiliar in things like this. The thoughts running through his head were all foreign to him. The feeling rolling through is body was something completely new. But Gaara was no idiot. Sure he had never experienced anything like this before, but that didn't mean he couldn't put a name to it. And as soon as the name was placed on the feeling, anger shot through him immediately.

Maybe he was wrong. It didn't have to be that emotion. He never experienced that sort of feeling before. There was nothing to compare it with. It could just be fascination that the kid drove away the noises that brought him pain. Maybe it was the kids odd smile that only sometimes seemed to fill his face completely. Or the kids beautiful eyes that seemed to look into his soul. Or the skin that looked as though it had been not only kissed by the sun, but caressed by it as well. A shudder rolled through the red head at that thought.

No. After his thoughts had turned in _that_ direction, he almost felt certain he knew the name of the feeling. And he wasn't happy about it at all.

Gaara had a crush on the blond boy.

"Ah, Gaara, would you mind coming up to the board and showing us a sentence that fits into this theme?" Iruka looked at him, pointing to the board filled with Oedipus notes and metaphors. He sighed, really not wanting to.

Gaara stood calmly, fully aware of the brilliant blue orbs trained on him, and walked up the white board. "If you would." The teachers voice grated on his brain even without the noises. He smirked and picked up the maker. The marker moved across the board without the slightest noise and when the bell rang he stepped away and out the door, leaving his things behind that a very shocked blond gathered together quickly.

_'Fate Fucking Sucks'_

* * *

**Ta-da. Chapter Three. **

**Has anyone else noticed **therapist** is the words** the **and** rapist** squished together? O.O IT'S TRUE!!**

Okay is it only me or do things seem to be going a little too fast? I tried to do it differently, but it just didn't seem to flow right if I didn't do it this way. :p This chapters song is _I'm Breathing, Are You Too?_ by Envy On The Coast. Much love, a bazillion points and my forever undying love and devotion if you recognized the title of the chapter... or know where I got it.

**Reviews are appreciated and loved.**


	4. Fire Eye'd Boy

**Ha ha! I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed the whole **the** and** rapist** thing. I felt kinda weird after I noticed that. Ha ha! I do some awkward things sometimes. Ha ha ha!**

**Note: Don't own the characters, just fanfiction, -yawn- has BL... the rating will probably go up later... ect. Enjoy?**

* * *

**Chapter Four  
**_Fire Eye'd Boy_

Naruto was sure he had once heard men would never be able to figure women out. At this point, Naruto could careless about women and would settle for being able to figure _men _out. Especially those of the red-hair-scowling-teal-eyed-black-clothes-eyeliner-wearing variety. The blond lay on this bed glaring a hole through his ceiling as his mind shuffled through the past three days and the red head who was his current frustration. The guy had said he wanted to be friends, but ignoring him was not how the friend thing usually worked. After the odd English 'incident', the red head hadn't so much as looked at him, let alone _talked_ to him.

"Hey," Sasuke materialized in his door. "I'm going out to look around. I'm supposed to ask you if you want to go with me." His cousin stood there, a glimmer of surprise ghosting around his eyes when he noticed the expression on the blonds face.

Naruto flashed him a smile then rolled over, staring at the wall. "No."

Sasuke sighed and walked in. Of course, Naruto could always make the face that made him want to be somewhat nice. He sat down at the edge of the bed and leaned against the foot board. Silence settled around them, making the room feel bigger than it was. Sasuke let it stretch on and on, waiting for Naruto to break it. Time crawled for a bit before Sasuke sighed and finally spoke. "What's wrong dobe?"

Naruto sat up abruptly. "People are driving fucking me crazy!!" He shouted to the ceiling not noticing when his cousin jumped as he hopped off the bed. "Gah!! It's so FRUSTRATING!" Naruto's hands pulled at his hair before he collapsed backwards onto his bed. "So, Sasuke teme, I don't think you can help me on that, I mean, with you being a social dumb ass and all." He smirked then started spitting out curses as a fist connected with his nose.

Sasuke scowled and stormed from the room, leaving his blond cousin cursing and bleeding. "Sob ob a bish." Naruto cursed as he felt a small amount of blood trickle from his nose. He got up and headed to the bathroom. Before he could step out of the door the phone rang shrilly and he contemplated answering it. Tissue... or phone...? This battle went on in his head for about a second before he settled on tissue. It was usually for Sasuke anyway.

Naruto walked back to his room seconds later with soft white paper held up to his nose, oddly satisfied with himself.

"NARUTO!!!"

"Shit monkeys!" The blond shouted jumping slightly, dropping his tissue and looking at his phone.

"Pick up the phone! Phone!" The light voice laughed and a heavier one joined in.

"Ten bucks says he craps himself when he hears this." The obviously male voice chuckled.

"Come on Naruto! You gotta be-"

"Trying to give a guy a heart attack Sakura!?" Naruto yelled into the receiver after he picked it up.

She laughed and he could almost picture the peace sign she was more than likely making. "I knew you were there."

"Why are you calling?" He had to laugh.

He heard Shikamaru sigh. "Oh so you did move away to forget us."

Naruto snorted. He could tell by Shikamaru's voice he was either on conference call or on speaker at Sakura's house. "Yeah, like you guys would make that possible. Why are calling the house phone?" He laughed glancing at his orange cellphone laying across the room. They usually just text him all day or called him on that, using the house phone was odd.

"So it could lose it's mindless-babble virginity." Shikamaru stated. The three friends laughed and senseless chatter filled the phone line for over an hour before Naruto remembered he was supposed to be sulking about something.

"Okay. Time out for five seconds!" He shouted as his friends began bickering over timezones and reasons they were inconvenient, Sakura's argument, or, in Shikamaru's case, necessary. The line took two minutes to quiet down enough before he could get a word in. "I need your guys help. Mostly Sakura's, but Shika, you can still listen." He smiled as his friend protested and Sakura gave a superior laugh, before telling him to go on. "Okay, there's this guy-"

"OH MY GOD!! No way!!! Damn it!!! Now I owe Shikamaru twenty bucks!" Sakura screamed and for some reason Naruto blushed. The brunette boy only laughed through the phone line.

"What the hell?" Naruto asked, the sounds of Sakura screaming obscenities faded as she walked away from her phone. "Seriously. Did I miss something?"

He heard his friend snort. "No, nothing important."

After a few minutes they heard the pink haired girl picked the phone back up and cleared her throat. "You were saying."

Naruto gulped, somewhat afraid to go on. He knew how Sakura got when she was upset. He shuddered and finally picked up where he left off. "Like I said, there's this guy and he said he wanted to be friends... but now he won't talk to me or even look at me! And I'm thinkin' 'What the hell?' Cause, I mean, I didn't even do anything to the guy... Well I did 'overload' his brain... and tried to saw my arm off to get away from him... Do you think that's why he won't talk to me? But that happened _before _he said he wanted to be friends. And it's not like he just doesn't talk to me, it seems like he's ignoring me! My brain feels confuuuuused." His voice dragged out the last word before silence filled the line.

"Uh, wow. You know, you spend eight days away from this guy and you almost forget how much he can fit into one breath." Sakura laughed.

"Fine. I'm gonna go find my socially disabled cousin and ask his opinion. It'd probably be better than what either of you could tell me."

"Oh! Sasuke's there?"

"Damn it! Focus Sakura! Focus!" He growled.

She giggled. "I'm kidding."

"What do you mean you tried to saw your arm off?" Shikamaru, silent the entire time, finally spoke up. For some reason, the tone in his friends voice melted all of Naruto's frustration and he burst into laughter. He couldn't stop. Tears leaked from his eyes and down his face as his friends joined him. Sakura's soft twinkling laughter and Shikamaru's husky chuckle filled his ears and at that moment nothing mattered but his friends.

-

In the end his friends couldn't think of anything, but they had made life a little brighter for him. He sent the message he'd been typing to Sakura and slid his phone into his pocket. "Man, I really kinda hate mornings." He yawned out, slipping his bag over his head as he walked through the classroom doorway and shivered when he felt eyes on him. It sounded highly insane, but for some reason he thought they were Gaara's. He let himself look at the red head. Icy green-blue eyes locked onto his. Another shiver ran down his body.

Damn. He'd been so caught up in... whatever that was, that when is phone vibrated in his pocket, he nearly jumped out of his skin. His eyes tore away from Gaara's and he pulled the thing out and flipped it open. The message was short, simple, and so him.

_'Just annoy him til he talks.'_

A giant grin had spread across his face and he greeted Kiba loudly and brightly. 'This annoying him thing... It's either gonna be fun or painful. So I'm gonna have fun until it gets painful.' He thought, making his way back to his seat. He grinned brightly at the boy who's eyes were no longer looking at him. "How's it going Gaara!" He shouted loudly sliding into his seat next to the boy. The glare he received in reply took him off guard.

"Leave me alone." Gaara muttered, scooting his chair further from Naruto's.

The blond opened his mouth to reply, but the bell rang, cutting him off and Orochimaru's voice prevented him further. "Okay, everyone hand in the permission slips and go down to the courtyard." Naruto felt his mouth fall open. Permission slip? Shit! He'd forgotten it this morning after Itachi had signed it, allowing him to go on the 'Senior Trip' thingy, and it was probably still laying on the kitchen counter! Damn it. "Oh, Naruto, Sasuke came by earlier. He said 'Tell the dobe toast isn't the most important thing in the morning' or something like that." Naruto felt his face explode in a blush. "He turned yours in this morning."

He didn't know if he should be grateful or want to kick his cousin in the ass. 'Be grateful' his mind decided and he picked up his things and followed the rest of the students out the door, trying to catch up the the oddly behaving red head. "Naruto!" Kiba called his name before making his way to his side. "Who ya looking for?"

"That idiot Gaara." He growled then smiled at the brunette.

"Don't let him hear you call him that." Kiba smiled then thought about it for a minute. "Wait. Say it to his face. It could be interesting."

"You want me to die don't you?"

"No! That guy just lets you get away with everything!" Kiba shouted, grinning and threw an arm across the blonds shoulders. "I mean seriously. No one else even has the nerve to shout or throw things around like you do... If I did it, I'm sure I'd be lying flat on my back in a puddle of blood!" The boy laughed.

"Don't say that. I'm sure Gaara's a good guy underneath that rough exterior, you just gotta crack it!" Naruto laughed.

"Yeah, cause everyone knows underneath all that icy skin and those murderous glares he's all fuzzy pink lovey-love inside!" Naruto snorted as Kiba barked out his laughter. They followed the crowd down the hall and Naruto couldn't help but notice he was the only being loud. The kids were all whispering quietly to each other, even Kiba's voice was a soft. There was no loud buzz of chatter that every school he'd ever been to had. Nothing. Maybe Kiba was right...

He pushed the thought off as he spotted the familiar head of red hair a few feet in front of him. He shrugged off Kiba's arm and shoved his way through the crowd, muttering apologies. "Gaara!" Naruto shouted as his hand clamped down on the red head's shoulder.

Gaara turned and locked eyes with the boy, freezing them both in their places. Bodies moved around them, knocking into Naruto's shoulders while giving Gaara room. "Leave me alone." The words were harsh and stung physically as the boy shook off Naruto's hand and walked away. It took Naruto a minute to gather himself.

"Harsh man." Kiba muttered. Naruto just smiled.

"Ha ha! It's gonna take a lot more than that to brush me off!" He stated loudly, knowing the red head could hear him. "I'm gonna be his friend wheather he wants to me to or not! Believe it!"

Kiba chuckled and watched the blond walk after the moody Gaara. "This... is going to be fun."

The teachers assembled all the seniors in the courtyard. The class size was smaller than Naruto thought it would be for a school as big as this one was. Groups of friends gathered, and chattered lowly heading to the buses that would take them to the lake. Gaara was easy to spot. Alone and under the shade of a large oak tree. Naruto made his way over to the red head, a grumbling and arguing Kiba right behind him, and the brunettes friends following cautiously. "Naruto!" The blond turned to the sound of his voice automatically and spotted Sasuke standing stoically next to a boy who had a very blank look to him and several fawning girls. His cousin waved him over.

"Dude you know that jerk?" Kiba asked as he was led towards said jerk.

"Yeah, I live with him." Naruto mumbled. He ignored Kiba's questions as he stood before his scowling cousin. Sasuke smirked at the frowning brunette standing behind the blond before looking back at the blond haired idiot who happened to be scowling at him as well. "Ya needed somethin' princess?"

Kiba fought back a laugh at Sasuke's glare. "I heard you were hanging out with that psycho Gaara."

Naruto smiled. "He's not a psycho, but yeah, I have been." 'Or at least trying to..' his brain filled in.

"Don't go messing around with him." Sasuke frowned, not really wanting to show he cared about the blond. "He hears voices in his head. Ask anyone here. They'll all tell you the same thing. Apparently he answers them as well." Black eyes shot to the red head, not surprised to find the boy watching the exchange between him and his cousin.

"Just mind your own business." Naruto smiled rolling his eyes and turned away.

"Fine. But I'm not answering to Itachi when you end up dead." Sasuke's words sent a shiver down his spine. Naruto seriously pitied anyone who had to answer to Itachi when he died. Hell, he pitied anyone in Itachi's _general vicinity _when he heard the news Naruto was dead. The man took his promise to Naruto's father a little too seriously sometimes. But he could also hear the underlying care in Sasuke's warning as well.

"Aw, you do care." Sasuke looked horrified by Naruto's words while everyone else just looked clueless. He laughed lightly and was joined by Kiba when a slight blush crept into the pale boys face. He turned back to Gaara. The boy seemed very interested with the branches of the tree at the moment. He looked up at them as he walked to his side. He couldn't find anything that demanded that much attention and looked back at the boy in time to see him climb onto one of the buses. "Damn that sneaky bastard!" Naruto cursed hopping onto the same bus with Kiba and his friends right behind him.

He looked around and spotted his target... stubbornly sitting next to a blushing girl with brown hair. Naruto swore under his breath and looked for the closest empty seat. "Aw you couldn't wait for me?" Naruto smiled as he passed him and flopped into one of the back seats.

Kiba was laughing as he took a seat next to him and kids he only slightly knew from the past few days filled the seats around them. The eerily quiet maleShino, Hinata: agirl who could never look him in the eyes, the kinda dorky Choji and the dark haired girl from chemistry, Tenten. Naruto smiled as each of them took their places around them. The one known as Hinata blushed and looked down when his eyes met hers, black hair falling forward to hide her eyes. Shino said nothing, but held his hand up in what Naruto took to be a wave. Choji... just looked bored. Tenten smiled and began a conversation with Kiba over the seat. "Does anyone know how long this is gonna take?"

"About an hour." Choji sighed settling back in his seat. Naruto pulled out his phone and sent a reply back to Sakura, attaching Shikamaru's number on as well.

_'He. Hates. Me.'_

The bus ride looked like it would be taking longer than an hour... because the girls all decided they needed to pee at the exact moment their bus left the city limits. It was practically chaos as they tried to get all the students back onto the cramped bus. And Naruto began to wonder if this trip was even worth the trouble... and why the hell hadn't Sasuke just driven them up here. It was way out of character for the boy to even think about taking a bus... Unless that bastard had driven and hadn't even told him. That seemed more like a Sasuke thing to do than anything. Naruto felt himself getting upset when his phone vibrated.

It was from Sakura. _'Did he SAY he h8s u?'_

Shikamaru's wasn't far behind. _'Since when do you _let_ people hate you?'_

Several students looked back at him as he cracked up laughing. In fact, Gaara was the only one who didn't turn around. And when his phone burst the semi-silence with Sakura's ring tone, people even joined him, chuckling softly, but it wasn't until he started singing along with the song that the entire bus filled with the laughter of everyone, excluding Gaara of course.

"Ei ie ie. I'm your little butterfly. Green black and blue make the colors in the sky!" He practically shouted in his best falsetto as he flipped the phone open and pushed his hand over his unoccupied ear as Kiba's laughter rang loudly. "Hey Sakura."

He heard her laugh. "Where're you at?" She asked, obviously inquiring about the laughing in the background. "And were you singing?" She tacked on.

"I'm on a bus for a field trip, cause you know, I didn't see enough lakes at home." He made a face as Kiba tried to stop laughing, which only sent the boy into another laughing fit. "And yes I was. I happen to love your ring tone." Choji and Tenten began cracking up with Kiba at that and he could hear Hinata's giggle join them.

Sakura's twinkling laugh rang into his ear before he heard the phone being passed and Shikamaru's voice ask, "You know I don't think that's a normal reaction from a guy."

"Pfft! What guy doesn't love that song?" Naruto laughed at his own joke and heard the phone being passed back to Sakura.

He could feel her smile. "Man, sometimes I miss your idiocy."

"Sometimes?" Naruto's voice rose in mock offense.

"Yeah. Only sometimes." They laughed together for a moment. "So... What do you mean he hates you?" She finally asked.

"You couldn't just wait for me to answer? You had to call and inform everyone of my love of high energy shit sung by barbies?" Sakura laughed while Kiba looked like he was dying next to him. He sighed. "But yeah, and I donno. Can we drop it for five minutes? Gotta go." He snapped the phone shut quickly. He smiled at the confused look Choji was giving him. He just shrugged and opened Sakura's last text.

That was the code they had always seemed to have used when one of them didn't want the world to hear what they were talking about. _'Trust me. He hates me. You should've seen the look he gave me when he told me to leave him alone!' _He sent it quickly and counted to thirty. The phone buzzed. Sakura's replies came faster than lightning when she was able.

_'Shika-kun says quit being a grl & r u gonna listen 2 him?'_

Naruto snorted. _'I'm not being a girl and yeah right. Since when have I ever listen to the 'stop it' crap?' _He smiled and shut his phone off. The ride seemed to go on forever after that and it didn't help when Kiba fell asleep and almost began drooling on his shoulder. One good shove ended that, but made the kid snore with his head at such an odd angle.

He sighed. Gaara hadn't even looked back once. And as they pulled into the national park, he felt his optimism sink. He mentally slapped himself. 'No no. He's gonna be my friend even if I have to kill him in the process...' He stopped then. 'That would certainly put a damper on my whole friends plan if I killed him...' He laughed at himself internally.

The bus came to a stop slowly, the whoosh of the doors letting them know freedom was close. Everyone stood, eager to get outside. Naruto bounced on the balls of his feet, fighting the urge to shove the kids out the door. 'Hurry, hurry, hurry! He's gonna escape!' Despite his mental urging, the students moved sluggishly forward and he saw a the mop of crimson hair pass by the window, going the opposite way of the rest of the class. 'Of course.' he sighed. Gaara was not making this 'Quit ignoring me!' plan easy.

As soon as his feet hit the ground he darted after him as the red hair disappeared around the corner of a trail. "Fuck!" Naruto cursed under his breath. He ran around the corner and slowed as he spotted Gaara ahead. "Oi! Gaara!" He saw shoulders stiffen briefly, but the boy made no other sign he'd heard him.

"Geez. What's with the attitude?" Naruto asked loudly as he finally made it to the red head's side.

Gaara glared at him from the corner of his eyes. "Leave me alone Uzumaki." He growled. Naruto only smiled.

"I'm not gonna leave you alone. You said you wanted to be friends, you're pretty much stuck with me." He laughed at Gaara's glare. The red head frowned. No one had ever laughed at his glare before.

"I don't want to be friends." His voice wasn't as harsh this time, and the ice in his glare seemed to melt. Naruto ignored it.

"Well. Prepared to be annoyed. I'm not going away until you admit you're my friend and I make you smile!" He shouted excitedly.

-

The plan... was failing.

They had been walking for, according to Naruto's watch, an hour and the boy seemed determined to ignore his every question, statement and even his very presence. Once, he had been walking away for five minutes before Naruto realized he was even gone! The blond was getting sort of angry, but mostly frustrated. This kid was a tough nut to crack. Naruto smiled internally.

"Y'know the phrase 'The... whatever, is so lush'?" He probed again, finally making his way to the weird things he had never voiced before, but always kinda thought about. "Whenever I say that I feel like I should be embarrassed, like, if a nun caught me jerking off in a confessional." There was a minute of silence before the red head turned to Naruto, face a mix of mortified and confused.

"What?"

"Oh, you're talking to me again?" The blond grinned as Gaara growled, said nothing, turned back around abruptly and kept walking. He chuckled and just kept following. "The word LUSH" he let his mouth drag over the word, exaggerating the movement. "just sounds so... dirty. And ya know, I always wondered, if you started drinking in a room that was spinning, would it stop spinning when you got drunk?" Again the boy looked back at him like he had lost his mind completely. Naruto grinned and shrugged his shoulders.

They continued walking through the park, the sounds other students on the trails falling farther away. Naruto frowned. He was positive that one would have gotten him some kind of response from the other kid. As they walked under a stone bridge he decided to try again. "You know that-" He stopped as Gaara froze and whipped around to face him. Eyes burning with something that made a shiver run down Naruto's spine. "I, um, a... e?" His voice trailed off as the red head pushed him into the stone wall, hands gripping his shirt collar tightly.

"You... you..." Naruto's voice stuttered as the emotion in the boys eyes created butterflies that rolled around nervously in his stomach.

"No." The voice was strong and almost angry. "You. Why can't you just stay away from me." The last part came out as a whisper, somehow still managing to sound strong. "You don't understand what could happen if you don't leave me alone." Naruto's heart gave a shudder and some part of him wanted to know exactly what would happen. Gaara dropped his hold on the blonds shirt and stepped away, eyes shut and he pinched the bridge of his nose, as if he was trying to think clearly.

"Gaara? Who cares? You're my friend." The red head looked back him, face almost pained, and closed the distance between them with determined and confidant steps. He stopped barely an inch away, resting his forehead on the blonds, hands resting on the wall on either side of his head, creating a cage around him. Naruto couldn't move. Part of him didn't dare to and part of him didn't want to.

"You don't understand... what I keep thinking." And with that Gaara brought his lips down on Naruto's.

* * *

**O.o Ohmigosh! He kissed him! **

The chapters just seem to be getting a little longer each time... Huh. Weird. Anyway, this chapters song is _Starving Your Friends_by Envy On The Coast. I'm pretty into them right now. Woot. Sakura's ring tone, that Naruto is so fond of is _I'm Your Little Butterfly_by Smile DK... Me and this song have a history AND it's freakin hilarious when guys try to sing it with high voices.

**Review! If you want of course, but keep in mind it makes me happy! Xl And if you ask questions... I'll answer them of course.**


	5. Butterflies & Hurricanes

**Oh noes. I broke the pattern. Oh well. Naruto needed this chapter. Okay. _"*dances off into a fantasy world of Naruto and Gaara doing deliciously naughty things to one another*"_ Best. Thing. I. EVER. Received. XD **YamiTenshi**, you rock. In other news: HOLY FUCK. I got to play in the snow today. Deep snow. The kind that gets in your socks and makes you do the 'frozen feet' dance. I'm happeh. **

**Note: Characters not mine, GaaNaru love, odd chapter... eh?**

* * *

**Chapter Five  
**_Butterflies & Hurricanes_

Naruto felt his heart pound faster as Gaara put a little more force into the kiss. His lips were soft, dry, perfect, and as he moved to deepen the kiss Naruto felt himself melt. What the hell was going on? He inhaled through his nose and the red heads scent filled him. He almost sighed. Gaara smelt like a fire. Woodsy, fierce, wild and he almost felt himself relax against the boy. When his tongue flicked against his lips he felt his mouth open automatically, but when their tongues brushed, he became tense and pushed the boy off of him. Gaara's strange eyes widened and hurt flash across his face briefly before his impassive mask pushed the expression away. The blond could feel himself shaking. "I- I..." Naruto burst from the cage of Gaara's arms and he ran back the way they came.

He didn't dare look back, but if he had, he would have seen the hurt on the red heads face again.

He kept running until he came to the crowd of students by the docks. He pulled his phone out and dialed the number he rarely ever called. Naruto tried to calm himself down as the phone rang. When the person picked up he still hadn't managed to stop his shaking. "What?" Sasuke's voice was annoyed.

"Did you drive here?" Naruto asked quickly, trying to hide the panic and hope in his voice that his cousin really had.

"What's wrong?" Sasuke's voice told him he hadn't hidden it well enough.

He sighed. "I don't feel good. Can I have the keys? Please tell me you drove."

He heard his cousins growl accompanied by the jingle of keys. Naruto smiled weakly in relief. Finally someone up in the sky seemed to be on his side. "Where are you?"

"By the docks?" He was in no mood to argue with the raven haired boy at the moment.

"I'll be right there." The sudden silence told him Sasuke had hung up, but Naruto couldn't bring himself to close his phone. The logical side of his brain told him he should stop being a wuss, go back there and talk to Gaara like a rational adult... The other side told him to get the fuck out of there and think about what to do later. While the opposite sides of his brain argued, his body told him that it was best to fall back and just think. A hand clamped down on his shoulder he yelped loudly and he spun around.

"Oh my god Sasuke... don't do that." Naruto gasped out.

Dark eyes narrowed and looked him up and down. "What happened?" His voice was strong and demanding.

"Can I tell you later? I just wanna leave." Sasuke nodded and led him to a teacher Naruto recognized as the one who taught history.

"Mr. Hoshigaki, Naruto isn't feeling well. We're going home." He looked at the blond boy, obviously looking like he was going to faint at any moment and nodded. Sasuke walked quickly through the crowd to the parking lot, unlocking the doors and starting the car before Naruto even got in. He watched the blond get in quickly, fasten his seat belt and rest his head on the window. They were already on the highway before Sasuke decided to speak when it became obvious Naruto wasn't going to say anything. "I'm assuming this has something to do with that Sabaku kid."

The blonds eyes widened. "You know what they say about when you assume..."

"Doesn't apply to me." The tension in Sasuke's shoulders relaxed a little when his cousin laughed lightly. "What happened?" He probed again. Naruto fidgeted in his seat, pulling on the end of his orange hoody as he tried to figure out how to say 'I freaked out cause a good looking guy kissed me!' without sounding like a wuss or making his cousin stomp on the breaks, turn around and try to beat said guy to a pulp.

"He's not good looking!!" was what decided to fly out of his mouth. Sasuke glanced at the suddenly frustrated blond out of the corner of his eye. Naruto's hand flew to his forehead with a loud slap. Damn it. Why mouth? Why? "Gaara... kissed... me- Holy fuck!!" He grabbed onto the 'oh shit' handle as Sasuke stomped on the breaks, pulling onto the shoulder of the road with little effort. The raven haired teen turned to his cousin furiously.

"He what?" Though the voice wasn't raised, Naruto could hear the anger in it.

"Let's just drive, yeah? It was an accident! I'm just over reacting! I swear! I just wanna go home!" Naruto waved his hands frantically. There was a moment of silence before Sasuke pulled onto the road again and continued back towards the city. Naruto let out a breath of relief and reached over to turn on the radio, switching it off abruptly as the words 'I wanna feel her lips just crush me' flooded the car loudly. He laughed nervously as his cousin eyed him suspiciously. "Uh, are my cds still here?"

"In the glove box. What do you mean it was an accident?" Naruto gabbed the white cd case and began flipping through it before answering.

"Uh, you know, I was just leaning in too close and he turned back around and, and bam! And it really was an accident. And I just freaked out..." Sasuke sighed silently as the blond pushed in a Goodnight Nurse cd. Naruto never realize he tended to say 'and' a lot when he was lying. He never figured out how he always got caught in a rare lie and no one ever felt the urge to tell him. Sasuke let it drop though. Naruto would eventually tell someone what really happened, most likely Sakura and Shikamaru, and if they thought it was something to be worried about, one of them usually called to tell him. Or he'd just call that annoying bubble gum haired moron Sakura and she'd spill immediately.

Naruto rested his head against the seat and closed his eyes, but opened them instantly when Gaara's face began flashing in his mind. 'God damn. There's just no getting rid of him!' He thought angrily, but the hurt look on the red heads face when he shoved him away... Naruto got mad at himself instead. 'Fuck. Maybe I shouldn't have run away.' He sighed and began chewing on the side of his lip. "Shit. You're sooo gonna hit me." He announced as he turned down the radio and looked at his cousin. Sasuke's eyes narrowed and he glanced at him quickly. He tossed one shoulder and sighed. Naruto got the hint. "I have to pee."

And with that the raven haired boy landed a solid punch on his cousins shoulder.

-

"Damn. Who knew you could hit so hard while driving?" Naruto complained as he walked out of the gas station. He rubbed his shoulder with his juice and grinned at Sasuke's scowl as they got back into the car.

"You do. Spread the word." Naruto laughed at his superior smile.

"Will do." He grinned and buckled his seat belt. "Man. I think I've spent enough time in this car to last a month. Maybe two!" He reached over, started flipping through stations and began babbling. Sasuke could tell there was no point in the words spilling from the blonds mouth. He was just talking so he could get his mind off something. Sasuke snarled mentally. Naruto was probably trying to keep his thoughts away from Gaara and whatever the hell the freak had done to him. He told himself it probably had just been a kiss... but, he felt himself tense and grip the steering wheel almost painfully, if he had done something more than that... Sasuke was fully prepared to make a certain red head disappear forever.

Time passed quickly and Sasuke was pulling into the parking garage before Naruto even realized they were even back in the city. "Why don't you wear eyeliner?" Naruto asked suddenly as the car climbed up to their spot.

Sasuke shot him a bewildered look. "Because I'm not a girl." He muttered shutting the car off and stepping out. They both walked in silence back down to the street and into their building. It wasn't until they stepped into the elevator that Naruto spoke again.

"You don't have to be a girl to wear eyeliner." He muttered, mind consumed with the exact red head he'd been doing a good job at blocking out for most of the ride home. "Besides," He stepped out as the elevator stopped at their floor. "I think it'd look good on you." He smirked, arms locked behind his head, lost in his thoughts as he followed his, once again, irritated cousin.

The apartment was silent as the boys headed their separate ways. "Oh!!" The blond shouted loudly as Sasuke sat on the couch, debating weather or not he should go check out the downtown scene again. "Sasuke will you make me some ramen?" Naruto asked loudly, draping over the back of the sofa and spilling down it until he was laying next to the dark haired boy.

"No."

"Pleeeeeaaase!" Naruto clasped his hands together under his chin and did his best impression of an abandoned puppy in the rain. "I'm sick! Remember?"

"No you're not." He snapped back. "You just got kissed." Both boys froze. 'Shit.' Sasuke mentally cursed as Naruto's mind filled with the incident again and that fucking _look _on Gaara's face... Sasuke sighed and got up. "I'm just boiling the water." He muttered and walked into the kitchen.

Five minutes later Naruto looked up as a bowl of steaming ramen was placed in front of him on the table. He grinned up at scowl Sasuke directed at him. "You do love me." He dug in as Sasuke flipped on the tv and began channel surfing.

"God knows why." He muttered and bite into his apple.

Naruto let out a sigh as he finished inhaling his ramen and took the bowl to the sink. 'Z Y X W V-' He sighed as his mind got stuck. Trying to keep Gaara from his mind was proving to be a very difficult task. The hot water sloshed noisily as he washed his dish and his mind began to wander.

Gaara was a somewhat nice guy... and he was good looking... Wait whoa! Back up and record over. He was a somewhat nice guy and he was pretty hot... DO OVER! He was okay and easy on the eyes... That's safe. Naruto was pretty sure he didn't like guys that way. He was _positive_ he didn't like guys. Right? Really, if he did like guys he would've noticed sometime before. Right? 'Oh god, I wish someone could give me the answers to this!' He let out a frustrated sigh and turned off the water. He set it in the dishwasher and walked to his room.

'I'm totally not gay. I'm really really not gay.' He thought. It was in that moment his phone gave a violent shake that made him laugh when it tickled him. He pulled it out and flipped it open. Shikamaru! Naruto thought happily as he opened the text.

_Is he ignoring you still? If so, I have to meet him. He's a force to be reckoned with._

He quickly typed in his reply and sent it. _Call?_

The few moments before his phone burst out into 'The Western World' his body was consumed with anxiety. His stomach gave a tight squeeze and he flipped the phone open. "What is it?" The bored drawl was interrupted by a loud yawn. Naruto sighed and sat up, trying to pull the words into something less idiotic.

"Well, he's not ignoring me anymore." Was all he could manage to pull up from his clouded mind.

"Hm." Was the only reply. "What happened? He kick your ass?"

"Not... exactly."

He heard some shuffling in the background before Shikamaru said anything again. "So what did he do?" The change was little, but Naruto could still hear it.

"Shika... if a guy kissed you what would you do?" There was a sharp intake of breath.

"Knee him in the groin." Naruto groaned. "What did you do?"

The blond hung his head and squeezed his eyes shut. "I stuttered and ran away." He moaned out, his pride as a male officially bruised. "He took me off guard! One minute I thought he was gonna kick my ass, the next he was fucking kissing me!" Naruto hissed, making sure he kept his voice low. "Then I ran away and had Sasuke take me home! I think I might have to kick my own ass for being such a pussy!" He flopped against the wall, leaned sideways against his head board and covered his eyes with his free hand before ruffling his hair nervously. "And now... I can't get his stupid face outta my mind. For a minute he looked really hurt Shika, the next he looked fine, but that look... Fuck."

"Calm down." His friend stated calmly. "I think you just need to think about you for a bit. Forget this kid for a moment and think about you."

"I'm not gay Shikamaru."

"Are you?" Naruto froze. "Who was the last person you dated? Your last crush?"

"You're not helping."

"Hey I'm your friend. I'm supposed to help you get through the battles smarter and a better person. Not delude you at times of major growth." Naruto smiled softly. "You think. I'm gonna-" An infectious yawn interrupted him. "take a nap." He finished after a moment. "Call me later."

"Yeah." Was all he could muster and the line went dead. He folded it shut and slipped his arms around his knees as he brought them to his chest. His mind shuffling through the things his friend had brought up instead of reassuring him of his sexual orientation. "Hm. That last person I dated..." Before he left, he'd been on several dates, but nothing ever beyond that. He's enthusiasm and cheerful grin had made him a somewhat popular target for friday and saturday nights. Not as much as his unwilling cousin, but enough to stroke his ego. But after one or two dates... he pretty much viewed them as friends and that never sat well with any of the girls. As of that moment, he actually couldn't recall the name of the brunette who had been the last girl to dump him. Hm. Maybe they had a point...

His last crush? Easy. Sakura, but that was disturbing as well. He'd stop crushing on her in the eighth grade. There just had to be someone after that right? He chewed on his thumb. No. There was no one after that. After Sakura became his best friend, girls just became... friends. "Oh fuck." His eyes flew open and he prayed he wouldn't start freaking out or worse, start crying. "I'm not thinking about this anymore." He moaned again and flopped onto his side.

-

The room was dark when his eyes opened the next time. He didn't have to look at the clock to know it was probably really early saturday morning. He uncurled himself from the very uncomfortable ball he'd fallen asleep in and stretched the muscles that protested painfully. "Okay." He yawned. "When the hell did I fall asleep?" He peeled his phone from the side of his face and pushed it aside, throwing the blanket Itachi must have laid over him to the floor.

He gave a painful laughing groan as his body refused to sit up without an argument. 'Yeah, no more falling asleep in that position.' The blond thought, fingers working on his aching left side. His arm, leg, and shoulder were stiff and consumed with the odd tingling sensation of being asleep. He glanced at the glowing green numbers of his alarm clock and sighed. 'How does Shikamaru do this everyday? How the fuck did _I _do this even once?!' He laughed. He and Sasuke got back at one yesterday, he'd spent about an hour battling himself, fell asleep and was now waking up at half past six a.m...

"Son of a bitch. I just lost sixteen fucking hours of my life!!" His whisper was fierce and he pushed himself off the bed. Itachi would be up at seven like always, so no reason why he shouldn't be getting up. He pulled clothes out of the closet and walked to the bathroom stiffly. "Fuck. If I go to bed before two in the morning tonight, I'm gonna be so pissed." The water warmed quickly and he blocked out all other thoughts as the water washed away all his aches and worries.

Forty minutes later he was fresh, clean and full of energy. The groan he got from the dark haired boy when he emerged told him, he was not. "Good morning my lovelies." He beamed at Sasuke and Itachi and walked over to the coffee pot.

"I see you're feeling better." Itachi chirpped, mood bright as well.

"Yup. What're we doing today?" Naruto shivered at the lovely smell of the dark liquid in his cup.

"Both of you shut up..." Sasuke growled, face buried in his arms. Naruto smiled and mussed up his cousins bed head. He, like Naruto himself, had never been a morning person. Why he was even up this early on a saturday was anyone's guess. "Get me coffee..." He demanded and for once the blond felt like complying.

"How come you're up with the sun this morning?" He asked pouring coffee and creamer for his cousin.

"Ask the other moron... Apparently we're not allowed to have 'family time' in the afternoon..."

"Yes Sasuke. We're going to rise together, eat breakfast and go for an outing just like a real family today." He smiled across the table at the two younger boys. "I figure, since both of you are kind of bummed about this move, yes Naruto, I could tell, we could do something interesting... Like... Something." Naruto snorted and Sasuke just took a drink, shaking his head back and forth softly.

As Itachi got up and began making breakfast, he listed off ideas. "There's the movies."

"Lame." Sasuke growled, finally sitting up.

"The skate park?"

"Neither of us skate."

"Pet store?"

"You're allergic to cats."

"Ice cream in the park?"

"We aren't five."

"Shopping at the mall?"

"Malls suck on saturdays."

"I wanna check it out!" Naruto ignored Sasuke's look of utter loathing, because, honestly, it was hard to avoid that look in the morning anyway. "I need to find a kick ass comic book store."

"Language. I think we'll go to the downtown mall then. I heard the valley one is pretty... odd. And the downtown mall has some good music stores." The raven haired boy lost a bit of his scowl and sipped his coffee, trying to hide his look of curiosity. Naruto reached over and began poking his cousin in the cheek.

"If you keep acting so cranky, you're gonna lose your ablity to smile."

"And if you keep poking me, you're gonna lose your fucking finger."

"Language." Itachi laughed and set full plates in front of them. Naruto dug into his immediately, Sasuke poked it around a little, only taking bites once in a while. Itachi cleared his throat when the blond finished and it became obvious his brother wasn't going to eat anymore. "So, I got a call from the school at work yesterday." His eyebrow raised as Naruto began choking and Sasuke grinned. "You two left during a field trip. Anyone care to explain?"

"I, well, I wasn't feelin' so hot, and Sasuke brought me home, and we didn't go anywhere, and I promise, and I went to bed right away!" The words flew out of the blue eyed boys mouth quickly. Unfortunately not quick enough for Itachi to miss all the unnecessary 'and's. He picked up his fork and began twirling it in the remaining food on his plate.

"You're lying."

Naruto's head fell. 'How the fuck does he always know?!' His brain did a frantic spasm. He was going to have to tell the truth. "I... got kissed by... someone and I... freaked out majorly..."

"Someone?"

"Some guy he's been bugging." Sasuke added helpfully. Naruto would've very much liked to kill him at that point.

"Some guy?" Itachi's voice got a bit darker and his grip tightened on the fork.

"Not just any guy either. He had to pick a weirdo."

"He's not a weirdo!" Naruto shot at the other teen who looked like he was enjoying himself.

"Does he have a name?" The man asked, praying it was anyone one other than the 'weirdo' he currently had in mind. Anyone at all.

"G-Gaara... Sabaku."

SNAP.

Naruto stared, eyes as wide as they'd ever been. "Holy shit... ITACHI! YOU JUST SNAPPED YOUR FORK IN TWO!!!" He jumped from his seat and leaned over the table. Indeed the fork was in two pieces, one bit still in his hand, the other laying on the table. "THAT WAS TOTALLY THE COOLEST FUCKIN THING I'VE EVER SEEN!" The blond shouted, voice not quieting until he felt the mood around his guardian. His skin crawled and he froze in his spot.

"Rooms now. Sasuke, get dressed. Naruto, get ready to leave." The two stood without another word and headed to their rooms almost jogging. Not a good vibe.

"I told you to stay away from that kid." Sasuke whispered before disappearing into his room. And for the second time in his life, he really wished he had taken his cousins advice.

-

"Since when did you two start fighting like five year olds again?" Itachi asked with an amused voice, his mood seeming to have passed. He stood between the two teens who were still staring daggers at each other. Naruto stuck his tongue out at the raven haired boy.

"Real mature."

"Screw you teme."

"Dobe."

"Fuck off!"

"Language you two." The man smiled as they walked into a large bookstore. Naruto huffed and walked straight to the comic book section. His mood lifted as he viewed the wide selection they had. He tucked the Outland Music store bag under his arm and drifted down the aisle slowly, looking for something that seemed interesting. Of course his stupid cousin had caught him staring at the red head cashier at the last place they'd been. And of course he had to bring up the red head he had been trying to keep out of his mind since he'd woken up. Stupid Sasuke. He let out an angry breath and picked up a random book and began flipping through it.

He snapped the book shut, closed his eyes and leaned against one of the shelves. Getting your mind off someone seemed to becoming increasingly difficult these days. Especially if you didn't want them there. Before he'd even realized what he was doing, he was comparing the guy to Gaara. The way his hair wasn't quite as vibrant, or how his skin was too dark, or how the shape of his eyes were just a bit off from being the same, or how he was just a couple inches shorter, or how his eyes weren't blue enough. When Sasuke caught him, it just made the realization of what he was doing suck even worse.

'Okay, so maybe I am attracted to him. I mean, he's gorgeous, mysterious, those eyes that looked into you... that voice that could make even a nun bend over. Oh shit!' He stood up and shoved the book back in it's place. 'What the hell? Where the fuck did that come from? That's it. I need to find a girlfriend. This is seriously getting out of hand.' His hand flew to his chest. 'Fuck. My heart's pounding and everything. If he had showed up right then-'

"Naruto?"

The blond smiled. "Hey Gaara." He waved briefly and went back to his thoughts. 'I think I probably would've jumped h- Oh my god!' Naruto jumped and spun around. The red head looked at him as though he had lost his mind again. "I promise I wasn't thinking about the nun!" He yelped indignantly. Gaara's icy green-blue eyes narrowed in confusion.

"Uh, that's great?" And before he could stop it, a nervous laugh escaped his lips. The other teen just looked even more confused. "About the other day." Naruto's toes curled in his shoes.

"Look, I'm sorry I ran away. I know. It was a bastard move. I'm sorry." Naruto apologized immeadiately, eyes suddenly very interested in his thumb.

"I'm sorry." Gaara answered, waving his apologies aside with the flick of his wrist. "You... I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. You just made them go away and I wanted to get closer." His voice was quick, but precise and when he flicked his head to the side Naruto caught a glimpse of the kanji burned into the other boy's skin. He felt curiosity rise in him, but he shook it away. "I understand if you tell me to fuck off though."

"No... wait. What? 'Them'?" Naruto suddenly felt very lost.

Gaara sighed and pulled Naruto by his hand to another aisle. His eyes were shut when he turned back to the boy. "Noises." He finally said after several minutes of thinking. "I have noises in my head. It's like static. They make my life miserable... but, when you're near me... they stop. When you're near me, there's silence in my head." With each word he had moved closer. Naruto didn't notice it until Gaara was once again very close to him and the boy's warm breath spread across his face. His heart jumped in excitement, but his mind told him to focus. "I wanted to see, if being that close to you would make them go away." His whisper was soft.

Something clicked in Naruto's mind and he took a step back. "You kissed me... because I make 'noises' in your head... go away?" The words left his lips while his mind fell into a haze and he felt something shatter in him. "So it was... like an experiment?" He heard himself laugh nervously. Even to him it sounded fragile and fake. "You had me worried for a minute there." His laugh just became louder and he almost stumbled as he began to back away.

"No, that's not-" Gaara reached for him, more confused than ever. "I think you-"

"I gotta go find my cousin. See you at school!" He called over his shoulder and took off down through the store, grabbing Itachi by his sleeve and pulling him out of the store. He wasn't sure why, but just being Gaara's 'experiament' hurt him... a lot.

Gaara watched the blond pull his psychiatrist out of the store and whispered the sentence Naruto had run away before he could finish. "I think you're special to me." His eyes screwed themselves shut. "Fuck."

* * *

**Aw. Sad face. Poor Gaara. "Just like a real family" - My dad says this all the damn time. **

Personally, I use the 'oh shit' handle alot. I'm an awesome driver. O.o Hm. We see the daily life (?) of the Uchiha plus one Uzumaki family. BTW, has anyone ever seen an extreamly angry man snap a fork in half without meaning to? It's possibly the coolest/scariest thing ever. Chapter Song - _Strokin' _by Clarence Carter. Cause that song fuckin rocks.

**Reviews? 8)**


	6. Because All Suffering Is Sweet

**Okay. So, I changed my pen name... why? There's another Fenrir-Chan out there and I'm kinda done being asked if I'm that person... and after three years with a name I didn't pick myself [and personally hated] I figured it was okay to change it. So... sorry if that confused anyone... :l Super short Chapter! O.o But it was the best cut off point... OAO So, no killing me yeah? **

**Note: Do I even have to say I don't own these guys by this point?**

* * *

**Chapter Six  
**_Because All Suffering is Sweet_

Gaara sighed, wishing the blond would've at least waited before bolting to hear what he wanted to say. Then of course it probably would've come out more offensive than he had meant for it to and then where would he be? Naruto had already made him apologize, something he hadn't done since he was a child and what was left after that? Nothing. "I'm going to say that didn't go as planned." Someone stated behind him. Gaara turned and sneered. Of course. That bastard Sasuke had to be the one to hear the exchange.

He snorted. "Not really." His voice was flat and uninterested, but his heart felt like it was twisting into nothing. 'Of course Naruto would've taken it that way. It sounds like that was what I was saying now that I think it over. Fuck...' His eyes shut again briefly. "Did you need something?" He asked the teen standing in front of him.

"Not particularly." The boy smiled. "He's special to you?"

"Yes." Gaara almost sighed again. Why the hell hadn't the blond been the one to hear that? Gaara chalked it up to his bad luck. Sasuke sighed and folded his arms across his chest as an internal dilemma battled it out in his head.

"Okay. Here's the thing, Naruto is special to everyone. Everyone he's ever met. I haven't seen him hurt since the accident. Now you come along, he's known you all of... nine days and now he runs out of the store with a look that makes my heart ache for him." Gaara's heart gave another squeeze and he felt himself flinch slightly. "A look I haven't seen in eleven years. Excuse me if I have a hard time believing you have any kind of feeling for him other than hate."

Gaara glared at the other boy instantly offended. "What?"

"I don't believe in all those shitty, and obviously, made up rumors, but for some reason Itachi got pissed when he hear you kissed his beloved cousin. Why is that? Are your voices violent?" He sneered and glared, but the red head just sent him his own glare in reply. "Forget it. Stay away from Naruto." With that the boy turned on his heel and began to walk away.

"Wait." Gaara lifted his hand to the retreating figure and almost sighed in relief when he turned around. "I don't... want to hurt him..." He had never asked for help. If it were up to him he never would ask for it, especially from the smug boy in front of him, but now it looked like he had no choice. "What should I do?" His words were a whisper and he wondered if Sasuke had heard him.

"Stay away from him."

"I can't do that." He didn't notice when his hand clutched at his chest.

"If this is about your voices, forget it. If you're willing to hurt him for your own comfort, don't ask me to help you." Sasuke smirked. His 'help' was riding on the red heads response.

"This isn't about them." Gaara's voice was quiet but fierce, anyone other than Sasuke would've taken a step back. "They're so quiet now I can't even hear them unless it's completely silent. And even if they were back at the level before I ever met him, I'd want to be around him anyway. No matter how loud he is. This isn't just about the comfort he brings...." Gaara trailed off. His words hanging in the air, threatening to suffocate him as he realized what he said was true. He'd want Naruto around even if he had no effect on the voices. 'No. That's just stupid. The kid only got my attention because he made the voices quiet...'

_You're lying._His conscious spoke up.

'No. If it weren't for that I would have never noticed him...'

_You sized him up the moment you met him. You didn't even notice when the voices disappeared the first time._

'He was new, I was curious...'

_Are you a liar now?_

Sasuke ignored the phone ringing in his pocket as he watched as the red head freaked out quietly. It was actually pretty comical and if it wasn't about his cousin, he would've laughed. Sasuke sighed and shifted his weight to one foot, leaning against the bookshelf next to him. He had already decided he'd help the red head get back on Naruto's good side... Not that that would be particularly hard. Naruto wasn't exactly known for holding onto a grudge. He wasn't exactly pleased with the idea of Gaara spending time around the blond either. But the guy had known his cousin nine days and had been able to make Naruto's eyes take on that empty look that haunted Sasuke for years the first time he'd seen it. No matter how much Sasuke wanted to deny it... the guy had become important to his cousin in some way in a very short amount of time.

"Hey. Are you going to freak out all day or what?" He snapped finally getting annoyed. Gaara's eyes snapped back to Sasuke. The raven haired teen almost laughed at the slightly paniced look in them. "You know, if I help you and you fuck him over, I will have to kill you."

One of Gaara's non-eyebrows lifted. The tone was joking, but the look in the other males eyes told him it definitely wasn't... and he shouldn't test it.

-

"It hurt more than it should." Naruto whispered into the phone. "But I wanted to be special. Y'know what I mean?" The phone was silent for a few moments.

"You must be special to him. He _kissed_ you."

"You don't kiss someone and then tell them you want the around cause they make voices in your head go away!!" Naruto shouted. "That's just... just... MEAN!" he huffed then lay back on his bed. "Not to mention... kinda weird." Naruto couldn't keep the frown off his face and he rolled onto his side. As soon as they had gotten home and Itachi finally stopped trying to get him to talk about his _feelings_, he had called Sakura and filled her in. No offense to Shikamaru, but Naruto doubted the brunette would be able to make him feel better... or give him any advice he'd be able to use without having to think about it for three days before he figured out what the hell he was talking about. "Jeez. What am I even getting so worked up over anyway? Now I can go back to being normal." He let out a loud breath and ruffled his hair.

Sakura sighed. "What's not normal about liking boys?"

"Uh, ONE: I am a boy. Two: I don't like _boys_, I sorta like _a _boy who used me as an experiment." Naruto huffed again. "And I only like him a little... who says it couldn't be like brotherly love or somethin'?"

Sakura giggled. "So you're saying you like him the same way you like Sasuke?"

Naruto thought for a minute. "Not exactly... I mean, I never imagined kissing Sasuke... Do you think I should to compare?" He almost laughed when Sakura began to choke and could practically hear her blush. "But it doesn't change the fact I was an experiment and he pretty much doesn't like me in any other way."

"Dear god... Don't ever mention shit like that again. I almost died of a heart attack. I could totally picture it!" Naruto laughed as his friend began choking again.

"I always knew you had a thing for me."

"You wish." She smiled.

Sasuke materialized in his door and made his 'I wanna talk and you're gonna listen' face. Naruto sighed. "I gotta go."

"Don't hurt yourself thinking."

"Har har. Later." Naruto slid the phone shut and into his pocket. "What's up?" Sasuke just continued to stare and Naruto fidgeted under his gaze. Sasuke had a stare that seemed to say 'I know all your secrets, your misdeeds, everything your ashamed of and everything you should be ashamed of'. It was an unnerving stare to be under when you had _everything _to be ashamed of. "Gonna stare all day or are ya gonna say something?" he asked sitting up.

Sasuke smirked and walked into the room, pushing the door open all the way. His mind had been going through every approach he could take to the subject he was sure Naruto would do anything to get out of right now. "I saw Gaara today." Straight to the point was always the best route. Naruto opened his mouth, closed it, bit his lip, opened his mouth, closed it, bit his lip and repeated several times. "Quit impersonating a fish. I know you saw him as well."

Naruto gave a small sigh. "Yeah, I saw him. So what?"

Sasuke frowned. "I want to ask you something and if you don't answer truthfully, I'll shave your head while you're sleeping and color your scalp with a black sharpie." Naruto felt his eye twitch. 'Fuckity fuck.' If he was willing to make a threat that mean, that meant he was going to ask something Naruto was not going to want to answer.

"Okay...?"

"Gaara. How do you feel about him?"

Naruto stared blankly at his cousin. How could he answer something like that when he didn't even know for himself. "I... think he's cool." Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"That all?" Naruto bit his lip.

"Can it be for now?" He asked softly, stomach tightening painfully. Sasuke's eyes softened and he nodded.

"Yeah. Just think about it." And then the raven haired teen was gone.

-

Gaara stared at his ceiling as the remnants of the voices ate at his brain. They were defiantly quieter but sleep still didn't come to him for more than an hour a night, not that the red head could sleep even if he had been allowed to. His mind refused to quit thinking of that bright blond. He knew he wanted to be more than friends with him and now that he knew that, there was nothing that was going to stand in his way.

He was smart and, though he often seemed oblivious to the world around him, he knew the stares people directed at Naruto. Even if Naruto himself never noticed them, Gaara saw everyone of them. The coy looks, the shy glances, the blush that appeared on girls, and every so often a boys, faces if he looked at them. He obviously had competition for the blonds attention. And he had already driven the blond away with his stupid mouth.

Gaara was not stupid and he was very stubborn. If he wanted something... he'd fight to get it.

* * *

**Woo-hoo. Sorry for the super shortness of this chapter... It could have been even shorter though. D8 Fer reals. :] So lets be happy I decided this was the best place to chop. Ha ha ha!**

Chapter song: _Always Be _by Jimmy Eat World. Here's somethin' random: Am I the only one who wonders if Deidara ever gets freaky with those hand mouth's of his? Cause I totally found myself wondering about that in class one day... O.o

**Reviews please? Ha ha!**


	7. I've Been Dying To Reach You

**Woot! Double update. Hu-rah. You know, I didn't notice the chapter titles followed a pattern until I put up chapter six. I officially broke another pattern. Ha ha ha!**

**Note: Characters don't belong to me! This chapter involves bad days, chemical reactions, and angry Gaara. :] Enjoy.**

* * *

**Chapter Seven  
**_I've Been Dying To Reach You_

The weekend was finally over. Gaara didn't think he was ever this upset the school week was starting. He wanted to see the blond so bad it hurt, but was dreading the thought he was going to have to face him after what he had said. Or what it sounded like he had said. Either way, he was almost petrified of seeing him.

After Sasuke had said he was going to help him and threatened him all in one sentence, he turned around and left without another word. He wondered if the boy was actually going to help him or if he had just been teasing him. He couldn't tell. He didn't care. He was going to make Naruto listen to him. Listen to all the feelings he had made him feel and all the irrational things he was making him do.

Gaara entered the classroom and calmly made his way to his seat. The other students weren't far behind. Since his voices had calmed down he and Temari had begun taking the bus with the other children, losing the extra time he had alone in the room before everyone else arrived. He pulled out his notebook and stared at the blank sheet waiting for the blond to arrive. When time began disappearing quickly, he began to worry. What if Naruto had decided to skip, change classes or had been in an accident? The last option had his heart tightening in something he recognized vaguely as worry. But the blond burst loudly through the door seconds before the bell rang. Gaara let out a breath he had been painfully holding.

His gaze stayed on the blond as the boy stopped to talk with the Inuzuka kid until Orochimaru told him to sit down with an irritated voice. Naruto smiled sheepishly and took the long way around the classroom avoiding the route that would take him by Gaara and avoided looking at the eyes he felt burning into him. When he sat down, chair as far away from the red head as possible, Gaara opened his mouth to say something, but the teacher cut him off explaining that with finals so close they would be taking notes every other day, with practical labs in between.

As the first slide appeared on the screen, Gaara turned to try again, but Naruto pointedly ignored him, trying to look very engrossed in copying the notes word for word. The red head felt his lip twitch in agitation as he realized what Naruto was doing. He faced forward, engulfed in his anger. Fine. He'd just catch the boy after class.

Unfortunately, Naruto was prepared for that and as soon as the bell rang, he dashed from the room. Gaara cursed. He pulled his things together quickly and left at a normal pace. The blond had the next class with him and if he got there too soon, he'd have to talk to him. He couldn't keep this up all day. Of course it seemed like the blue eyed boy had thought of that because he was very engrossed in a conversation with the English teacher when Gaara arrived.

And for the second time that day, Gaara twitched with anger.

The pattern repeated all day. In the remaining two classes he had with the blond, when Gaara arrived, the blond wouldn't stroll in until seconds before the bell rang and would dash out before anyone else even realized the bell had rung. "Fuck!" Gaara growled fiercely making the sculpture teacher, Pein, glare at him when he heard it. Gaara just glared back and hurried after his target. Because, seriously, this was ridiculous.

He followed the bright orange and blond boy out of the building, closing the distance with each step, but as the other students poured from the building, he lost sight of Naruto and had to stop and scan the ever growing crowd. He grinned when he caught sight of him, but it fell when he realized he was in a car and driving away from him.

Gaara cursed and stalked to the bus stop, the crowd instantly parting for him. Gaara almost growled at them. Sure. Part when he _wasn't _chasing after someone he had to apologize to for the second time in one week. Fucking people. Of course when some kid sneered at him, he couldn't help but snap and removed it with his fist. Gaara almost sighed, instantly feeling better. Naruto had a way of making him pissed to the point of physical violence... not directed to him of course, but to anyone who looked at the red head wrong before he got a chance to settle down.

The Principal was there instantly, dragging the once again furious red head to his office. Hidan was almost glowing with anger as he set Gaara into a chair on the other side of his desk, before taking his own seat. He let out a deep breath before attempting to speak. "What did this one do? Squish a bug too loudly?" He growled out.

Gaara sneered but didn't answer.

Hidan seemed to sense this. "Fine. One more incident like this and I'll be forced to expel you. For now, you have detention." His face split into a smug smirk and Gaara answered with his own. The Principal growled and pointed to the door. Gaara took the gesture as his invitation to leave. As soon as he was half way down the small hall that would lead to the main hallway, he heard the Principals frustrated scream/roar and gave a satisfied smirk at the frowning secretary.

He walked out of the building for the second time and joined Temari at the bus stop. She quirked a brow at his oddly creepy expression, but let it drop as the bus wheezed to a stop in front of them. It wasn't until the bus was already rolling away did Gaara remember Naruto... and how he was definitely avoiding him. His grin dropped and his forehead creased.

Fuck.

-

The next day, Gaara showed up to the very blank, very stuffy, very warm and very tiny detention room in somewhat of a better mood. The room was the last one before the main doors Naruto always left through. Yes. Today the blond wouldn't be able to avoid him.

-

Naruto sighed in relief as the empty desk greeted him when he dashed through the classroom door with seconds to spare. He felt bad about ignoring and avoiding the red head, but if he was absent it made a whole lot easier on him. But as he took his seat, he began to worry. Sure he was avoiding Gaara, but he still wanted to make sure the boy was alright. Hell, it was actually pretty hard to avoid him. To ignore the looks Gaara had sent him yesterday was actually kinda painful. He wanted to look into the red heads eyes and forget everything but the emotion in them, but then again he didn't. Looking into Gaara's eyes just made him confused and Naruto Uzumaki did **not **like to be confused in anyway.

He mumbled pitifully as the teacher put a test tube and several chemicals on the table in front of him. "I trust you know enough about chemical reactions to know these are highly dangerous, otherwise I will have to kill someone for placing you in the advanced class." Orochimaru hissed, enjoying himself as the boy paled slightly. "You don't have your partner, who is quite skilled with chemicals and keeping them under control, so follow the instructions exactly." He added just to see the boy pale even more before moving on.

Naruto gulped and looked around the room, praying someone else was partner-less. No such luck. Fuck monkeys. "Okay. Put your goggles on and begin. Remember, this is practice for the finals, if you have questions ask me, any conversation anyone other than that with your lab partner is considered cheating and will result in one letter grade deduction from your final for each offense." Naruto gulped again and pulled the clear plastic over his eyes.

Naruto looked down at the instruction sheet.

'Put a few ml of concentrated sulphuric acid' Naruto picked up the bottle marked Sulphuric Acid. 'in a test tube and then very carefully,' Naruto mesured and poured the amount into the test tube. 'then very carefully, while keeping the test tube at an angle of approximately 45 degrees, add some ethanol.' Naruto carefully followed the instructions, shaking the entire time. 'This must be done, such that the ethanol is not mixed with the sulphuric acid.' Naruto sighed. This wasn't so hard he thought smiling to himself. He put the test tube in its holder before continuing on with the experiment.

He skipped several of the steps that explained why the ethanol shouldn't be mixed with the sulphuric acid and jumped to the next chemical addition. 'Next add a tiny amount of solid potassium permanganate.'

"How small is tiny?" He murmured to himself as he pulled out a piece of the stuff. "This should work." He smiled and plopped the piece into the test tube and waited for the reaction he was supposed to be looking for... It was bubbling like it was supposed to...

"Fuck!" Naruto jumped back as the test tube burst into flames and burst, spreading to his instructions. Several students screamed and jumped away from his table. Before the sprinklers could even go off, Orochimaru doused the flames with the fire extinguisher. Naruto tried to calm his heart down as the teacher turned to him furiously.

"Okay class, make sure there is enough ethanol in the test tube to contain the explosion of the potassium permanganate when it touches the sulphuric acid and make sure it isn't more than 20 mm3. Naruto... Go to the counselors office for swearing." Naruto opened his mouth to protest but the glare Orochimaru aimed at him had him practically running down to the first floor.

A blond secretary smiled up at him as he walked into the waiting room and before he could sit down, the door marked O-Z opened and a burly man smiled down at him. "Naruto right?" He asked. Naruto could only nod and follow him into the large office numbly when he motioned for him to follow. "I'm Asuma Sarutobi, your counselor. Orochimaru called down and told me to expect you." He laughed. "Don't worry. There's always one student a month down here for the same reason. He expects students in the advanced classes to know what they're doing with almost no instruction. Don't look like a frightened rabbit."

Naruto relaxed at the man's easy smile and felt himself smile in return. "Now, did you want to switch classes? What science class were you taking at your last school?"

The rest of the period was spent discussing options and when the bell rang Naruto was feeling infinitely better about the day...

Unfortunately, it all seemed to follow the same pattern. In English he slipped in some water and ended up cracking his head against the side of a desk putting him in the nurses office. In Trigonometry, the teacher accidentaly whacked him with a book. In Drama, he fell off the stage. In Business Keyboarding, his chair broke. Thankfully Civil War passed with no bodily injury and when the teacher Kisame embarrassed him, it didn't effect him at all. In P.E. though, he was smacked in the face with a basket ball and cracked his head against the wall. The day ended on the same note when, in Sculpture, he cut himself with a plastic clay tool. Needless to say, when he screamed "Son of a bitch!" it was completely called for. The teacher Pein just looked at him, handed him a band-aid and let it slide.

When the final bell rang, Naruto's head was thobbing and he got up warily, beginning to wonder if driving the car, since Sasuke claimed he was sick, was a safe idea. He was so lost in his thoughts that when he saw Gaara waiting for him halfway to the door, he stopped completely. Those green-blue eyes locked onto his and seemed to say 'got ya'. Naruto walked quickly towards the door, crossing to the other side of the hallway, using the few passing students as a shield between him and the red head. Ever the optimist he began to run head first for the closed door, hoping his Jedi mind powers would kick in at any moment to keep him from smacking into it... or at least keeping him from making a fool out of himself.

No such luck.

Just as Gaara reached out for him, someone swung the door open and smacked him in the forehead, sending him flying to the ground. "FUCKING CHRIST!! THAT FUCKING HURTS!! OH MY GOD!! IS THE UNIVERSE OUT TO KILL ME TODAY?!? SERIOUSLY!! WHAT. THE. FUCK!?!?" He shouted at the top of his lungs forcing Gaara to take a startled step back and the girl who pushed the door open to squeak in surprise. Naruto jumped to his feet and was out the door before either of them could blink.

Gaara watched the blond practically run away, leaving him to wonder about all the bandages covering his, obviously, frustrated crush.

Naruto arrived home without being involved in an accident only to get his pant leg caught in the oddly crowded elevator door. He was almost in tears by the time he finally walked into the apartment. He slammed the door, dodged the questions Sasuke and Itachi were throwing at him about his damaged state and threw himself onto his bed, before screaming into a pillow. Today was, officially, the worst day in his entire seventeenth year.

-

Gaara sighed as the empty chair remained empty through out Chemistry. So the blond was still avoiding him. Who cares? It didn't matter to anyone. Gaara's heart gave a slight squeeze. Okay. So _he_ cared. It mattered to _him_. And it really hurt to know the blond didn't even want to see him. The class was buzzing with Naruto's absence and when the girl in front of him said something about a fire the blond started, he immeadiatly responded. "What?" His voice asked the question fiercely and she flinched. "What happened yesterday?" He tried in a calmer voice when she seemed too scared to continue.

"Naruto messed up the lab big time yesterday and started a small fire." Kiba answered for her from the front of the class room. It was then that Gaara realized the entire class had gone completely silent. Naruto had started a fire? Was that why he was covered in bandages? Kiba seemed to read what was going on in Gaara's mind, because he moved to the chair beside the red head, seemingly comfortable there. "He didn't get hurt, but the rest of the day didn't go so well. He told me all about it in sculpture class. Apparently he was injured at least once in every class all day. He even cut himself with a plastic butter knife after he finished telling me about it." Kiba smiled when Gaara seemed to pale, got up and went back to his seat as the bell rang.

'So that's what the universe comment had been about...' The thought as he absent mindedly as he began taking notes. 'He must have switched classes then...'

Gaara hurried without looking like he was hurrying to English and sighed in relief to see a very injured and dejected looking blond sitting at his desk. Like Monday, the blond refused to meet his gaze but the red head was busy trying not to look happy the blond hadn't completely killed himself the other day. He took his seat, ready to begin trying to corner Naruto into talking to him. Luck was on his side... even if it wasn't for the other teen. Iruka paired them up for the final project... a project that would last the rest of the school year, but before the class could move next to their partners the bell rang and Naruto was out the door before anyone could blink.

Gaara growled.

This was getting very frustrating. They would talk. Even if Gaara had to glue him to his seat and weld said seat to the floor, they were going to talk.

The day passed sluggishly and Gaara's frustration only grew. When the senior lunch period ended with out any sign of Naruto, the red head was feeling very homicidal. Business keyboarding was a bust. Naruto was seated across the room and the teacher, Zetsu, was very strict about the silence. When the bell rang and the blond was instantly gone, half of his brain wondered if the 'ninja' line he had spouted the second day they met hadn't been a lie and the other half got extremely pissed. What was it going to take to get this kid to sit still for one minute? Gaara smiled as an idea came to him.

Fuck psychology class. He was going to wait outside Naruto's P.E. class and ambush the little fox. Sure resorting to ambush was a dirty move, but at times like these... dirty moves were completely called for.

Gaara sat out of sight by the boys locker room door in the stairwell Naruto was most likely to take. He pulled out an old worn book and began reading. It was the last remaining physical reminder of his life with his mother and father. He tried to push this thought out of his mind and lost himself in the world known as **Anthem**. Before he knew it he, once again, began criticizing Equality 7-2521, the foolish and weak protagonist. He put the book away when began to get angry and just stared at the locker room door. That book always had the ability to make him angry and he needed to be level headed if he wanted Naruto to listen to him and the blond had the power to make him agitated just by looking at him with those innocent blue eyes.

Gaara twitched at the bell rang and the students began pouring through the doors. As he predicted, Naruto was the last one out, face almost guilty and, as he predicted, he picked the route Gaara thought he would. The red head melted into the shadows and waited for the blond to pass, grabbing him by the wrist as he did. Naruto gave a small squeak of surprise as he was spun around and shoved into a wall. His eyes widened and his heart pounded as Gaara's face came into focus.

"Ah, it, uh, h-hey what's going on Gaara?" The red head almost smiled at his shocked face and stuttering. The bell chimed over head and Naruto flinched. "We're, uh, l-late for class."

"I don't care." Gaara responded quietly, eyes locking onto the blonds. Naruto fought a blush and stopped wiggling in the other boy's hold. "You know, you are a hard guy to get a hold of."

"Really? I-I wish Itachi knew that." Naruto's voice stuttered again and Gaara smiled.

"Now." Gaara brought his face very close to the blonds, ignoring the fact the others breath hitched when their noses touched. "Naruto, I'm going to ask you something and I want you to answer truthfully. Okay?" Naruto nodded and the red head felt him swallow nervously. "Now will you explain to me why you have been avoiding me the past three days?"

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**Ta-da. Hm. I think I like this chapter. Ha ha ha! Especially the Trapped Naruto ending and I thought the chapter title was extremely appropriate. **

Holy Sponge bob. Has anyone ever had a day like that? It freakin' sucks! DX Really it does. And YES! You can start a fire with those chemicals like that. That experiment can be quite dangerous and, unless you know what you're doing, don't do it by yourself in a flammable area. Fer reals yo. Ha ha ha! If you get the chance, read **Anthem **by Ayn Rand. I loved it... but I agree with Gaara, duh. Chapter song: _Immortal _by Ashhliee Slade. My favorite local band from back home. T.T I miss seeing them play...

**Reviews for me? Pah-leeeese?**


	8. You're Not Alone

**Attn: I'm officially a nobody. **

**That is all.**

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**Chapter Eight**_  
You're Not Alone_

There were many things Naruto hated. Broccoli, tests, trigonometry and so on, but above all, he hated confrontation... And this seriously counted as confrontation in his book. Gaara's teal eyes shimmered with anger and his hands were beginning to dig into Naruto's flesh. The blond knew it was much too late to look for an out, but that didn't stop him from trying. Blue eyes darted around nervously, stalling for time and avoiding the gaze burning into him. "I- I wasn't... I mean... Uh, you noticed?" He grinned.

The red head wasn't amused and he just frowned. Naruto gulped. Today sucked. Fuck. The whole month was just turning into one giant suckfest for him. "I didn't, uh... You! You! You avoided me first!" He shouted finally, trying not to feel guilty for pushing the blame away. "You didn't even care if I was there or not!"

Gaara sighed and released his hold on the shorter boy, but made no move to step away. "I never avoided you Naruto. I ignored you, but I **always** cared if you were there or not." He scowled never taking his eyes from the others. "You are so infuriating. Do you have any idea how stressful these past few days have been for me?"

Naruto felt something snap inside and he shoved the other boy away angrily. "For you? For **you**?!" His voice rose and echoed around them, filling the stairwell. "Cause you know they've been a fuckin' **cakewalk** for me! You've got no **idea** how it feels to hear the person you like wants you around **only** because you make **voices** or **noises** or **whatever** the fuck you want to call 'em in their head go away! You're just pissing me off with all your self-righteous bullshit! And the part that pisses me off the most is I can't figure out why it matters so much to me!" He shoved the other boy again, pinning him to the wall, hands practically fusing to the wall on either side of Gaara's head. "Now tell me, what **right** do you have to be pissed off at me?!"

The red head sneered. "I've never liked humans, myself included, because they're petty and annoying. So when I find one I **do** like, I make them acknowledge me in some way. Usually in the form of hate, rarely friendship, but this, this is something completely new to me." He growled out and pulled the blond to him roughly, arms wrapping around his waist. They glared at each other, faces centimeters apart, neither willing to give in. "You have awoken something within me Naruto Uzumaki." he hissed before their lips crushed together furiously. Anger dissolving into a feeling completely new to both of them took over, moving their bodies without thought. Tongues clashed, exploring the new foreign territory open to them and fighting for dominance at the same time.

Naruto moaned softly as Gaara pulled roughly at his bottom lip with his teeth, making the red head shiver breathlessly. No one had the right to sound that wonderful. The soft sounds that refused to stop became the only sounds around them. Gaara attacked his neck, biting and sucking in turn. Naruto's hands wandered aimlessly, finding the semi hard bulge in the red head's jeans. Gaara hissed into bronze skin and his breath hitched as the blond began stroking him through the rough material.

There wasn't any doubt in their hazy minds that things could've gone so much further, would've gotten much more dangerous when a voice snapped them back to reality. "Hey! Quit sucking face and get to class!" Naruto jumped away from him so quickly Gaara had to lean back against the wall to keep from falling over in his foggy state. 'We're in a school you pervert!' Naruto's brain screamed at him. "Kids these days. Sheesh. I just ate..." The voice muttered, fading away as the two walked up the stairs, hands linked together by a single finger.

-

Sasuke was happy.

Really. He couldn't be happier. His cousin's smile, wide and genuine, was back, his feet not just dragging him along, his shoulders no longer slumped in badly hid frustration and the air around him just seemed so colorful. Naruto was happy again. So... why was the raven haired boy so pissed? It took him a second to realize it had a lot to do with the smug looking red head following his favorite relative. His fingers twitched in annoyance as they came closer and closer. "It's Naruto's life... It's Naruto's life..." He muttered climbing into the car.

"Talking to yourself again?" Naruto chirped brightly opening the passenger side door.

"Hm." Sasuke rolled his eyes and turned the key.

"Yeah. Cause that answers everything." He laughed and turned to the red head standing by his door. His smile grew just the slightest bit. "See you tomorrow?" Gaara nodded and brushed his fingers against the blonds gently. Naruto repressed a shudder and watched him walk away. He wanted Gaara to kiss him, but that little voice in the back of his head reminded him that was unreasonable. In front of all their classmates and his moody cousin would probably put the other boy out of his comfort zone and that could be less than helpful. He smiled and bit his lip, fingers gently tracing the path Gaara's light touch had burned into his skin absentmindedly.

"Ugh. If you're going to be so lovey-dovey don't do it in front of me, you'll give me diabetes or something." Sasuke rolled his eyes sarcastically as they pulled away from the school.

"Jealous?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes again. "Oh yes." his voice a perfect falsetto. "You know I've **always** wanted an emotionally dead boyfriend." He switched back to his normal voice. "But I'll tell you what I'm defiantly **not **jealous of."

"What's that?"

Sasuke grinned, his next words making the other boy pale considerably. "Telling Itachi about your new boyfriend." The ride home was amazingly, and not surprisingly, silent after that. Naruto's mind was in a panic for hours. He didn't know why they both feared telling Itachi they were dating someone new. It wasn't as if the man had threatened either of them or the person they were dating and he certainly never raised a hand to either of them. Naruto was positive the fact he was involved with another boy wouldn't be a problem, Sasuke had come out years ago. But whenever they told him they had a new boyfriend or girlfriend the man would go oddly silent, the air around him would get heavier and he'd be moody for an entire week. Itachi told them they'd understand when they had kids of their own... neither one of them pointed out he was taking it to an extreme. And honestly, it was actually a very scary thing to witness.

Sasuke frowned as his cousin continued to pale and the apartment continued to remain silent for hours. He knew he had to tell the blond what he knew before it all exploded horribly. "Naruto?" Blue eyes met his, hopeful he had an idea. "There's something you need to know before you tell Itachi." Naruto was on the edge of his seat, praying it was some good news. The raven haired boy leaned against the wall and sighed. "Gaara is Itachi's patient." Naruto's face hit the coffee table with a loud bang as he fell forward. He scrambled to his knees and looked up at his cousin, ignoring the throbbing pain in his head.

"What?! Are you sure?"

"Quite."

"Shit." Naruto moaned loudly, hanging his head. It was official. He was toast. "Can we just **not** tell him?" He asked his eyes pleading with Sasuke pathetically. The raven haired boy just shook his head. "C'mon! I don't even know if he is my boyfriend yet!" He shouted, grasping at anything left. He knew not telling the man would just make things worse... Sasuke had tried it before. When the brunette stared at him dead on and raised an eyebrow, Naruto knew he'd be alone on this 'not telling him' scheme and he was basically fucked. "Why do I lack the ability to lie?!" He screamed flopping onto his back.

"Because you're too adorably sweet to even need it." Itachi added walking through the front door. He looked at the blond frozen on the floor and a smug looking brunette. "Now. Why do you want the talent to lie?"

Naruto gulped and remained frozen to his place. 'Don'tliedon'tliedon'tlie!" His brain screamed at him as he searched for options. He could only come up with three. A) Tell the truth and be locked in his room for life. B) Lie for an hour before giving in **and** being locked in his room for life. And, finally, C) Get the fuck outta dodge. Obviously option C was the winner. He jumped up grabbed the car keys and was out the door in seconds. "I'll be back before midnight!" He shouted and ran for the elevator.

"Make it ten!" Itachi shouted after him, watched the door slam shut and turned to his amused younger brother. "What was that about?" Sasuke just laughed and walked to his bedroom door.

"I'm so not getting into this." He laughed again and disappeared into his room. Itachi sighed.

"Teenagers." He muttered cheerfully, walking into the kitchen and began making dinner.

-

Naruto watched the few stars he could see from his perch on the metallic slide. The metal wasn't getting any warmer, but he made no move to get up. His mind was filled with a completely new problem. Something he'd said to Sasuke had come back to bother him, chewing on his brain like a worm. "I don't even know if we're going out." He muttered, hands moving up to cover his eyes and block out everything but his thoughts.

He never really noticed this park before, though he and Sasuke must have driven past it every day to get to school. But it's silence had called to him as he drove by, all the children running home when the sun set behind the mountains. And silence is what he really wanted.

His mind was angry at him... at itself really, for not asking Gaara if they were even dating or if their little exchange in the stairwell had just been a reaction of their clashing hormones. "Hormones hormones hormones. Fuck. Every problem in life can be explained by hormones!" He muttered softly. But then... that line... those words that had made his heart pound. _"You have awoken something within me Naruto Uzumaki."_ They made his heart race just thinking about them, about the person who said them. He blushed gently and smiled. He had never heard his name said so... wonderfully. "Ugh. I really am turning into a girl." He whispered, letting his hands fall back to his chest.

"I know I said don't avoid me, but I didn't think you'd stalk me."

"Gah!" Naruto jumped as a rough voice sounded out below him. His feet slipped and he rocketed down the slide, cracking his head on the end and landing hard on his back with a loud 'Oof'. He just laid there for a minute, not even trying to move. "Owch..."

"You alright?" Gaara asked leaning over the fallen blond.

"Yup. Just thought my ass should meet the ground." He answered breathlessly before it dawned on him just who exactly it was staring down at him. "G-Gaara? What're you doing here?" His face exploded in a blush.

"I live in that building right over there. Temari spotted you from the window." He gave the blond a small smile, taking a seat beside him. Naruto's mind was going crazy but his lips didn't budge. Gaara smiled again. "So what are you doing here? I mean, besides trying to kill yourself."

Naruto grinned. "Nah, that's pretty much it."

The conversation rolled on easily, though Naruto did most of the talking. It was comfortable with none of the awkwardness both boys had been expecting. They learned they were both pretty much orphans, though neither gave any explanation as to why and they both didn't push the subject. Naruto found out Gaara really was Itachi's patient. Gaara learned Naruto really missed the stars.

Soon the words they were saying became unimportant and as the subjects changed neither boy could really recall what they had been talking about only moments before, but they could tell you every movement the other boy made. Gaara had a habit of licking his bottom lip. Naruto ruffled his hair when he thought about something. Gaara's head tilted to the right slightly when he was explaining something. Naruto's hands liked to rest behind his head. Naruto used his hands to talk. Gaara's ankles would cross and uncross every few minutes. Naruto enjoyed switching how he was seated frequently. Each word lost quickly, every movement savored.

"Shit. What time is it?" Naruto asked suddenly, interrupting his own sentence.

"Almost ten thirty. Why?"

"Oh fuck monkeys. I'm so dead." He groaned standing up. Gaara rose to his feet as well, not wanting the blond to go and not looking forward to sneaking back into the orphanage. They walked to the parking lot together in a comfortable silence. The red head leaned against the hood as the blond got in and started the vehicle. "Uh, Gaara?"

"Yeah?"

"Are we, like, going out or something?" His question made the other boy freeze momentarily. He turned and leaned into the car window, staring intently at the blond.

"We never said we were." He stated simply. Naruto's heart fell slightly. He reminded himself he'd already knew the answer, but it didn't help much. "Hey Naruto?"

"Yeah?" Their lips met briefly before Gaara pulled away and gave him a grin.

"Want to go out with me?" Naruto's smile was blinding as he pulled the red head down for another kiss.

"Yeah."

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**THE END! .... Ha ha ha. Nah, I'm just kidding, there's more. :]  
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**FINALLY. Fuck. You think I took long enough? Ha ha.** Song- _Exodus Honey_ by Honeycut. **I love angry make-out scenes.**

**Reviews would be lovely dovely. **


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